Subway Surfers turns 15 in May next year and it is still the most downloaded mobile game of all time, surpassing 4.5 billion lifetime downloads.

Mathias Gredal Nørvig has been steering it for most of that run - he took over as CEO of SYBO in 2017. Today he leads the Copenhagen studio of around 125 to 130 people, part of Miniclip since 2022.

We sat down with him to talk about Subway Surfers City, the economics of an ad-funded megahit, TikTok, Miniclip and what comes after year fifteen.

Nørvig puts lifetime downloads at 4.8 to 4.9 billion, around half of them reinstalls. "We have some people that get a new phone and get it again, then it's a testament to its stickiness," he says. "Or people who either get old enough or affluent enough to get their first smartphone. So we are still growing."

The game still brings in around a million new installs a day, nearly 15 years in. He credits "the craftsmanship of the core design, the artists making the things, the live ops team and the marketing team."

City launched globally in February, and Nørvig is careful with the language surrounding the new game. "There will never be another Subway Surfers," he says. "With Subway City, we could make a game that went deeper into the lore, allowed players to progress and chase and upgrade things."

"The verdict, I think, is still out," he admits. City has had 40 to 50 million downloads and is "generating nice profits for us," but "it was probably a little too close to Subway Surfers.

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