The Gaming Hub in our WOLF Qanawat app has proved to be a huge attraction for our discerning app users, who enjoy entertainment, games and a supportive, like-minded community every time they visit.
Gaming is becoming an increasingly important part of social networking, especially for Arabic-speaking users in the MENA region whose age demographic makes them one of the world’s youngest and most digitally engaged users.
At WOLF we’ve always evolved and fuelled our app innovation, product development and new features to align with precisely what the app community wants, thanks to ongoing, crucial feedback from our users and volunteers.
So, when we launched our Golden Goal game a few months ago, to coincide with the FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament and with football fans in mind, we understood that adding our first in-game store to this launch would offer an exciting new feature for users to enhance the game, while creating a new revenue stream.
After a concentrated period of development, Golden Goal was the first WOLF Qanawat game to be released with a store that sits on top of our new universal framework. Until then, each game was a completely separate entity, despite there being numerous common components, like the leaderboard system.
The main benefit of the universal framework is that all games in the framework can be improved or fixed at once. Previously this would have been done individually for each game. This makes development much quicker, easier and provides a consistent user experience across games.
Our new in-game store addition to Golden Goal was made possible by the universal framework, offering a complete overhaul of the store and inventory, allowing users to purchase a bespoke range of cosmetic items for themselves or to gift to others, such as customising the match pitches and footballs.
Just a few days after launch, users had spent an incredible $20,000 on in-app purchases in Golden Goal. On the back of this success, and recognising the value of this first iteration of the store, the team confirmed the decision to add stores to all other games.
Carrom, our first game to launch back in 2025, was the obvious next choice for the universal framework upgrade, overhauling the previous, simple store that it had launched with, to receive the new store offering. The transition went smoothly and we are currently seeing a similar level of engagement as with Golden Goal, thanks to latest store purchasing options and the addition of gifting and achievements, driving even more engagement in what was already a hugely popular game.
These in-game store successes came ahead of both our Lonoo and XO in-game stores being added during July, with the XO store launching in September 2026. Launching XO, based on the classic game of noughts and crosses – with an innovative new game presentation style and 3D graphics – has resulted in growing popularity for our latest gaming release; it’s fun and quick to play, which makes it perfect for community tournaments.
The addition of XO’s in-game store demonstrates our team’s innovation and design talent, as this latest and most impressive store release includes spectacular products, including an incredible line-up of backgrounds, pieces and 3D devices for users to choose from, which will transform the visuals of the game.
Great news for our users is that, in the near future, the enhanced and dynamic new additions that the universal framework has brought to the XO store will be ported to Carrom, Lonoo and Golden Goal.
Clearly, in-game stores are already exciting our users, but the launch was also a considered step in our business plan to give us a new revenue stream in our app. In the competitive social networking space, we know it’s essential to keep evolving, balancing user enjoyment and loyalty with business decisions that generate return. We’re delighted that these recent in-game stores are doing just that.
WOLF CEO, Gary Knight, says: “We’re excited to see what our users think of the new in-game stores and especially keen to see how the XO store performs. Over time, we will continue to refine and improve the experience, as well as filling the store with gaming cosmetics and accessories that our users will love.”
