As we reflect on 2020 and look forward to the year ahead, I am thrilled to begin the new year with the announcement that Kahoot! has reached 5 billion cumulative participating players globally since we first launched in 2013, with over 1.5 billion participating players in the last year alone, showing that the strong growth we saw over the last year is continuing into 2021.

2020 was a year of exceptional challenges around the world. Lockdowns, school closures, social distancing and the shift to remote learning, working and socializing created a new normal that we all had to adapt to quickly. At Kahoot!, we were fortunate to be able to respond to these challenges by supporting educators, students, parents, work teams and social groups to continue making learning awesome, whether in person or virtually.

Looking back at 2020

Last year was a game changer at Kahoot!, with exciting initiatives and strong growth from beginning to end. In February, as schools across the world shifted to distance learning, we offered free access to Kahoot! Premium for all educators and schools affected by the pandemic, which garnered over 100,000 sign-ups per day during peak days. By May, remote use of Kahoot! had increased 5X.

We continuously added new features to improve our users’ experience and better support learning in both in-person and virtual settings, including interactive presentations, study leagues, brainstorm and making our mobile app available in 5 global languages. In summer, we launched Kahoot! Academy, a knowledge platform and online community, which allows educators and publishers to share and access content that supports engaging and meaningful learning experiences for learners of all ages, worldwide.

We strengthened our corporate learning offerings by launching Kahoot! 360 — a powerful, collaborative platform for organizations looking to connect teams and individuals in person or remotely via training, presentations or events. Around back to school season 2020, we launched Kahoot! EDU, a scalable offering for schools that helps admins and school leaders bring an enhanced Kahoot! experience to their entire school or district.

We also welcomed Actimo and Drops to the Kahoot! family of learning platforms, and partnered with organizations including Disney, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Bitmoji and more. In 2020, we also raised more than $240 million in order to accelerate growth through value-creating organic and non-organic opportunities.

Just in time for the holiday season, we launched Kahoot!+ Family: a combo pack offering families a set of tools and apps to learn at home.

Through all these offerings, Kahoot! is making learning awesome for more learners than ever, becoming a vital toolkit to bring engagement at school, work and home as our users adjust to a new post-COVID normal.

See our year in review in the infographic below, or download it as a PDF here:

A look at the numbers

As we closed out the year, I am proud to share that our organization has stepped up to the challenges, delivered solid financial growth, and provided more value to all Kahoot! users around the world. The Kahoot! Group reported invoiced revenue of $45.2 million for the full year 2020, compared to $13 million as reported for 2019, representing 247% year-over-year growth, as announced in our trading update earlier today.

In the fourth quarter, invoiced revenue reached $17.5 million, representing a 230% increase from the same time last year. In Q4, user growth on the platform continued with more than 24 million active accounts (57% year-over-year growth), more than 250 million hosted games (19% year-over-year increase) and approximately 1.5 billion participating players (26% year-over-year growth), all in the last 12 months.

We also saw strong growth in paid subscriptions for Kahoot!, reaching more than 550,000 in the fourth quarter of 2020, an increase of 190,000 paid subscribers from Q3 2020, including 100,000 from the newly acquired company Drops. The year-over-year growth in paid subscriptions was 220% in Q4 2020 compared to the same time last year.

2021, here we come!

We wrapped up the year with lots of action and excitement, but we won’t stop there. To continue building great products and experiences for our users and customers, we are also looking to strengthen and expand our team in various geographies and are actively hiring for several positions in all areas of the business. If you are passionate about helping build the leading learning platform in the world, you can learn more about joining our fabulous team here.

In early 2021, we will be preparing the organization for our main listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange. In addition, we plan to offer new, free and premium tools and functionality for interactive presentations for school and work, corporate training, language learning, Academy Marketplace, and additional content offerings from publishing partners…to make learning even more awesome for all users!

Stay tuned!