Video games’ hottest new platform is an old one:

VIDEO GAME players are returning to an old technology to get their dopamine fix: websites.

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While much of the $189-billion video game industry is stagnant or shrinking, the appetite for web-based games like GeoGuessr and chess is soaring. Sales for such titles — advertising and the sums players spend for in-game items, were expected to triple from 2021 to 2028, reaching $3.09 billion, according to data from Google and Kantar, a market researcher.

The reason is simple: For time-pressed people, visiting a website whether it's on a PC or mobile phone is fast and easy. No one has to boot up a console or download an app, and games can be picked up at any time, at home or between work shifts. Game creators get to keep more of their proceeds by cutting out revenue-skimming app-store owners and can attract their own advertisers.

“Newcomers are coming to the web,” said Dmitry Kachmar, founder of the web-games company Playgama, an online mall for browser titles that's based in Dubai. Developers “don't need publishers. It's easier to get traffic,” he said.

Web games' easy accessibility partly explains the success of intergenerational hits like the New York Times' Wordle, which was originally posted on its own website. Microsoft Corp.'s LinkedIn and Reddit, Inc. have followed suit with trivia and puzzle games like Sudoku.

It takes only a few seconds to drop into Vortella's Dress Up, a game on the Poki BV service that has been attracting 16 million plays a month and 460,000 daily active users, according to an online posting by one of the developers.