Gamurs

GAMURS Group, also referred to as Gamurs, is a digital media and publishing business that owns and operates a network of gaming, esports and entertainment websites. Its portfolio has included Dot Esports, Destructoid, We Got This Covered, The Mary Sue, Prima Games, Twinfinite, Pro Game Guides, Gamepur, Siliconera, Operation Sports, Attack of the Fanboy, Touch Tap Play, Gamer Journalist, GameSkinny and The Escapist. Company materials describe 13 to 16 major publications and coverage spanning breaking news, evergreen guides, reviews and community forums across video games, esports, film, television, anime and comics.

The group began as a social network for gamers and player/team-finding platforms for titles such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends, before pivoting to content publishing through a sustained acquisition strategy. Beginning with the 2016 purchase of Dot Esports from The Daily Dot, GAMURS bought esports and gaming sites including eSports-Nation, GoldPer10, eSports.guru, SplitPush.net, Pro Game Guides (2020), We Got This Covered and The Mary Sue (2021), Prima Games, Twinfinite, Gamer Journalist and Attack of the Fanboy (2022), and several properties from Enthusiast Gaming including Destructoid, The Escapist, PC Invasion and Siliconera (2022).

The business monetizes its audience through advertising and brand partnerships, offering advertising solutions, bespoke campaigns, sponsorships, digital media buying and branded content. Reported campaign clients include McDonald's, Red Bull, Nintendo, Intel, GIGABYTE and HoYoverse (Genshin Impact).

Founding story

In 2010, Riad Chikhani, Phillip Luu and Malik Akl created Rune Gear, a forum for RuneScape, which they sold as teenagers to focus on school. That experience led them to build a comparable business covering a wider range of games; in December 2014 they joined with Carl Oehme and Halim Yoo to form GAMURS. The company started as a social network for gamers after participating in the NRMA Jumpstart program run by the Slingshot Accelerator.

Business model

GAMURS owns and operates a portfolio of media brands and sells access to their audiences to advertisers. Services listed include advertising solutions, bespoke custom campaigns, strategic sponsorships, digital media buying, branded content creation and product partnerships. Growth is driven by acquiring small, underdeveloped digital media properties and scaling them with the group's tools, resources and platform; the company also solicits inbound brands to join its network with a free valuation offer.

Advertising and sponsorship revenue generated across the network's publications, including media buying, bespoke campaigns and branded content. At the time of its Series A the company said it was already profitable and that revenue as of July 2022 was tracking 158% up year over year, with EBITDA more than doubled.

Traction

Company materials cite 60 million monthly sessions, 34 million social followers, 1.6 billion monthly social impressions and over 1 billion monthly reach across 13-16 publications. The 2022 Series A announcement reported 55 million monthly active users, revenue tracking 158% above the prior year as of July 2022, and more than doubled EBITDA. In late 2022 the founder described roughly 500 full-time and freelance team members, over 50 million monthly readers, 30 million-plus social followers and over 115 million monthly article views.

Latest developments

Wikipedia reports layoffs in July 2024 and a second round on September 24, 2024 affecting about 30 employees, attributed by the company to "unprecedented shifts" in the industry, specifically Google's 2023 Helpful Content update and declining Google Search and Discover traffic across its sites; additional layoffs are reported in February, March and April 2025, and PC Invasion appears to have been shut down with its domain redirecting to Prima Games. The company's news page announces the sale of Upcomer.