Questo Replay 2021: Our Journey Beyond the Moon

If our last Questo Replay article wasn’t enough of a warning to us, the twists and turns of 2021 caught everyone unaware once again.

What’s more, a new year didn’t bring about the light of a new sun on the horizon as so many had hoped. Instead, 2021 conjured up the willpower of people everywhere to hunker down and just get on with it. The drive to ♪ put in the work, put in the hours and take what’s ours 🎵. Rocket fuel, you might say… 

…so, what did Questo do? Well, we got our jabs, masked up, pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps and used our rocket fuel to shoot a manned spacecraft (Questo) headlong into the unknown (2021). We called this our Apollo mission. If you’re reading this, it was a great success!

Update: Thanks in part to an investment round in February, we passed the moon and decided to keep on going!

Even now if you look up on a clear night, somewhere between the ISS and Elon Musk’s roadster, the Questo rocket still flies true… and it shows no signs of slowing. It started its journey with just a small crew, granted, but we picked up more like-minded voyagers along the way.  To start our 2021 Replay, here’s a whopper of a statistic:

In this age of the internet and the unseen audience, 100,000 clicks, views, or interactions of this magnitude can sometimes seem less without the context of the humans behind them. 

To get a better idea of just how huge the Questo 2021 crowd was, they would completely fill Wembley Stadium – with enough players leftover to create a sizeable queue of ten thousand strong at the door. If you add proper social distancing, we might have filled two Wembleys!

Next year we’re going to need a bigger stadium! Wouldn’t you agree?

Speaking of Questo crowds, yes, our meetings are getting quite cosy! But we always make room for new talent – no matter the timezone (or planet) you operate from! With this doubling of the team, more brilliant minds joined with ours – providing us with an endless stream of ideas and insight to boost our vision to new heights.

To stay connected IRL and to celebrate our new colleagues, many of us journeyed to Romania in August for a teambuilding experience we won’t ever forget. PS: wandering around Dracula’s castle was a hoot! you should try it sometime. 

Travelling was out of the question towards the end of the year, so we all entered the metaverse (Google Meets) instead for our yearly Questo Awards event. This year featured a modern twist: each member of the team received an NFT designed by AI as a thank you for being a part of this crew!

As well as the ongoing hypergrowth of our team, lots of savvy Questers saw our rocket and pitched in by creating, refining and exploring the Earth’s surface with us. 

From independent creators and through our partnerships with international student associations, study abroad partners, gifting companies, OTAs, brick and mortar travel agencies (pause for breath) influencers, transportation companies, city passes and local experience platforms (including additions from our own storytellers), it was all hands on deck to bring these games to life – and this is only the beginning!

Where would we be without our creators? 

That’s why in 2021, we dished out more in shared revenue to Questo creators than ever before. Whether your payment arrived to you via SWIFT or PayPal, or even on the leg of one of our first-class homing pigeons, we want to thank you sincerely for your time, effort and service!

It looks like romance, horror and escapism were the subjects of our top three games this year… and we promise not to read too far into that. Congratulations to us for putting these three corkers together!

One thing we know for certain: we tricked a lot of people into exercising in 2021. For that, we apologise, but also, you’re welcome! Do us this favour on an unrelated note: 2022 is the year for buying yourself a good pair of hiking boots! (and a Questo game)

Thanks, Juan! We were indeed responsible for a lot of brain gymnastics last year. It comes as no surprise to us, then, that so many of our players gritted their teeth and pulled through over a million challenges when the going got tough. Here’s to the power of jolly cooperation!

That’s possibly why our average user rating remains at a rock steady 4.7 stars! This tells us that our users welcome a challenge in good spirit and were prepared to go the distance (literally) to learn, explore and push their noggins to the limit. Thank you!

Another highlight of the year was our haunted event, which I think we can agree gave us all the heebie-jeebies. Droves of actors, actresses, influencers and pickles jumped into the project feet first and the result was a night to remember!

So, “what’s next for 2022” we hear you ask? 

As the Questo ecosystem continues to diversify and grow, surprising us more and more by the day, expect to see big impactful changes from us to mirror the needs of our players, creators and investors – handing them the tools they need to join us among the stars!

Lastly, (but not leastly) our players are the driving force that motivates us to create new and exciting games. Thank you and please accept our gift!  

We’re giving away one free game for yourself, or as a gift for someone close to you. Head over to our website, select any game of your choice, and enter the code ‘replay2022’ to start playing. 

Hold on to your hats for 2022!