How a Female Founder Built AviaGames Into a Top 40 Global Mobile Gaming Company

Solitaire has long been known as a simple, single-player game — but Vickie Chen saw something different. As a female founder who did not come from a hardcore gaming background, she focused on how everyday players experience games, rather than how experienced players master them. She questioned why competitive gaming had to be complex, and whether familiar, casual games could offer the same level of challenge and engagement. Solitaire, as a game that millions already understood, became a natural place to test this idea.

For many people who used computers before the Internet became part of everyday life, Solitaire was probably the first video game they ever played. Included in Windows 95, it became a familiar part of daily routines, often played during short breaks at work.

We've always felt that it was this perfect balance of simplicity and challenge that made it an early go-to time-killer. In offices around the world, long before smartphones, people played round after round of Solitaire at their desks, filling small gaps between tasks.

The name itself also tells part of the story. In English, "Solitaire" means "alone," referring to a card game that can be played by oneself. But in Chinese, it was translated as "接龙," meaning "connecting sequences," a name that more directly reflects how the game is played.

In a way, this early understanding of Solitaire as something simple, accessible, and endlessly replayable helped shape what came next. Today, Solitaire Clash has become one of the most successful card game apps in North America, consistently ranking at the top of the free card game charts.

Instead of changing the core of Solitaire, we focused on changing how people experience it. Solitaire has always been defined as a one-player game, but with Solitaire Clash, we reimagined it through Solitaire Without the Solitude, turning it into a competitive experience.

Players are matched with others of similar skill levels and play with the same deck. The goal is simple: achieve the highest score within the time limit. This is what defines skill-based gaming, where winning depends on how well you play.

Players can play or practice for free, or they can join cash tournaments to win real-money rewards. With a small entry fee, players tend to become more focused, and the outcome has a stronger emotional impact.

Our vision was shaped by our founder, AviaGames CEO Vickie Chen, an entrepreneur with 13 years of experience in the gaming industry prior to founding the company, including her previous role as General Manager of Global Publishing at Sohu Changyou. As she shared, "I started out working in marketing at a game company. Before that, I had hardly ever played games."

This perspective shaped how she viewed the industry. As Vickie Chen questioned, "Why do people always design very complex rules and high barriers to entry for competitive games? Can't simple and casual games be made into competitive games?" She saw that many competitive games had become too complicated for everyday players, while simpler games were often overlooked as non-competitive.

We founded AviaGames in 2016 in a small garage in Mountain View, Silicon Valley, with a simple goal: to bridge that gap. As the U.S. company expanded, AviaGames established subsidiaries globally, including in China, the UK, and Germany.

In the early years, we kept a relatively low profile, quietly building and refining our approach. It was not until recently, including at GDC 2026, that we began sharing more openly about how we work and what we have learned.

That thinking extended beyond Solitaire Clash. We applied the same approach to other titles like Bingo Tour and 8 Ball Strike, turning familiar, casual experiences into competitive formats built around skill-based gaming.

Over time, this approach helped position AviaGames among the top 40 mobile game companies globally by revenue.

The journey was not easy. In the early days, we struggled to find the right direction and audience, and there were moments when the company came close to collapsing. As Vickie Chen shared, "We experienced two periods of financial collapse, which was probably the kind of situation where we 'should have closed down.' But most of the team wanted to hold on. Our office was actually in a garage, and everyone continued to work there. Then I found investment and pulled through."

Around 2020, as more people spent time at home, mobile gaming grew rapidly, helping validate the model we had been building. Everything started to change as more players looked for games that were both accessible and competitive. We realized that people did not necessarily want more complicated games; they wanted better experiences built on games they already understood.

Along the way, we discovered something unexpected. A large portion of our players turned out to be women, even though this was not something we intentionally targeted. It showed us that casual players can also be highly competitive, a perspective also reflected within our company today, where women make up around 40% of our team.

Today, we have expanded beyond Solitaire Clash into a range of card games and other titles built around the same principle of skill-based gaming, continuously refining gameplay and scoring to make the experience more competitive over time.

As we grew, we learned that trust is essential, especially in the space of real-money games. As Vickie Chen shared, "Before starting my business, when I first played this type of game, I was hesitant about spending money. Even if I only spent $1, the feeling of not receiving a reward after winning, or having to go through a lot of trouble to withdraw the money, was very negative."

That is why we invest heavily in fair systems, smooth payments, and strong compliance. In the US, this is critical because only skill-based gaming formats, where outcomes are determined by player performance, can scale more broadly in the States. We also partnered with trusted platforms like PayPal and focused on making deposits and withdrawals fast and reliable, reducing wait times and improving the overall player experience.

This focus on trust is also reflected in how players respond to the product. On the App Store, Solitaire Clash maintains a 4.8 rating, with many reviews consistently noting that the gameplay feels fair and that the experience remains enjoyable even without spending money.

As we continued to grow, we also began to better understand what makes our platform different. Beyond gameplay, many of our in-game events are connected to real-world causes, including charity events, like the Wonderland Wishes campaign that supports underprivileged children, and events like Moms Week. These efforts reflect what our players genuinely respond to and have become an important part of how we design our games.

This same approach extends to how we build our company. We aim to create a work environment that is open, comfortable, and people-focused, where teams can focus on creating better experiences without unnecessary pressure.

Even small details reflect these values. In our office, we adopted two rescue cats, Jiabao and Tangtang, that had been injured on the street. Today, they have a safe and secure place with us, symbolizing the kind of company culture we want to build.

Recently, at AviaGames' GDC appearance, we shared more about this journey and the lessons we learned along the way. We also presented alongside partners like PayPal, highlighting how secure and seamless payment systems improve player trust in real-money games, and worked with platforms like Meta to explore how to better connect brands and performance in mobile gaming.

Looking ahead, we believe the future of gaming lies in making competition more accessible. Games do not need to be complicated to be meaningful. They just need to be fair, engaging, and designed with players in mind.

At AviaGames, that belief continues to guide everything we build.