Stockholm-based game studio GOALS has announced a successful $20 million Series A funding round, led by Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, with participation from Northzone, Moonfire, and Cassius. The latest investment brings the company’s total funding to $39 million. Founded in 2021 by Andreas Thorstensson, former Counter Strike World Champion and founder of leading esports organization SK Gaming, the funds will be used to accelerate hiring and production of the studio’s debut football game, also titled GOALS.
The current 50-person team at GOALS consists of veterans from renowned franchises and game developers, including Battlefield, FIFA, Madden, EA, Activision, and Ubisoft. The company plans to expand the team to 75 members in the coming years, prioritizing key engineering roles.
GOALS aims to revolutionize the football genre, emphasizing fun, fast, and fluid gameplay over hyperrealism. The game will offer standard 11v11 matches for 2 players (versus or co-op) and casual play, as well as a 5v5 mode called GOALS: GO, where all players are user-controlled. This mode aims to increase the social and competitive aspects of football games, making the game esports ready from launch. GOALS will be a free-to-play game with cross-platform compatibility for consoles and PCs, optimized for older consoles and more accessible hardware.
The team at GOALS believes that a well-designed football game should be the world’s biggest video game, catering to the needs of all 3.5 billion football fans worldwide. The studio’s ambitious approach to game design and technology has the potential to extend beyond its first game and the football genre as a whole, garnering significant interest from investors like Alexis Ohanian, founder of Seven Seven Six.
