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“We need to be willing to kill weak projects and learn from failures,” said Supercell’s Maya Hofree, general manager of Hay Day.
Of course, Hay Day is far from one of those failures – in fact it’s now 12 years old and still going strong. Its original mission to be “the number one farming lifestyle simulator” holds firm.
A farmer’s dozen
Originally titled Project Soil, Hay Day was Supercell’s first game designed for iPad – both having released in the same year, 2012, in a time when free-to-play was still a fledgling monetisation strategy and Facebook games reigned. There were far fewer games designed with touchscreens in mind, thus Hay Day was developed to fill the space in the market.
Today, Hofree shared at PGC London 2025 that Hay Day has a development team of 50 people, comprised of three “subcells” which focus on different attributes of the game. There are also eight leads outside of the subcells who ensure that they each communicate and collaborate.
Hofree also shared that more than one billion barns have been created in Hay Day to date, and that the game continues to perform “consistently” stable. She even shared internal metrics on Hay Day’s monthly active player base across its 12-year lifetime, demonstrating a turnaround from a years-long decline.
“We have a really loyal, stable player base, which has even been growing in the last few years,” said Hofree. “The game is still relevant and still has a growth virality touch to it. If we want to deliver the best experience to players, we still have to grow.
“We’re not talking about scaling revenue. We’re talking about making the best game that we can, and having as many people play it as possible. We want to be the number one farming lifestyle simulator.”
Answering an audience question, she noted that if forced to choose between Hay Day’s existing and potential audiences, retaining those current players is the top priority. As a result, development decisions are made in keeping with Hay Day’s original vision, expanding on the “fantasy of being a prosperous farmer”.
At the same time, Hofree said that each new feature does try to “challenge” that definition: “Being a prosperous farmer… What does that mean? What did it mean before and what does it mean today?”
She also suggested Hay Day “still has a lot to deliver to a new audience”, with the recent Gordon Ramsay collaboration kickstarting a new campaign to pitch Hay Day as a relaxing game.
“This is just the beginning,” said Hofree, in regards to the collab. “There’s a lot more to come.”
The first day of PGC London 2025 is almost a wrap, but that means there’s plenty of coverage to catch up on from throughout Day One and a whole host of further talks still to come on Day Two, January 21. Check out the full schedule here.
