The History of Ninja Kiwi (Bloons Empire)

Ninja Kiwi is the New Zealand studio behind one of the most successful tower defense series ever made. Founded in 2006 by brothers Chris and Stephen Harris, the studio rode the Flash boom into a sustainable browser-games business, then made the unusual jump from Flash portal hits to a long-running mobile franchise. The history of Ninja Kiwi is one of the rare browser-era success stories where the studio is bigger and more profitable now than at any point during its Flash heyday.

The founding

Ninja Kiwi was founded in 2006 by brothers Chris and Stephen Harris, based in Auckland, New Zealand. The early Ninja Kiwi was a small operation building Flash games for portal distribution — the standard browser games business of the mid-2000s, when sites like Kongregate, Armor Games, and Newgrounds were the primary distribution channels.

New Zealand is an unusual location for a games studio at the scale Ninja Kiwi eventually reached. The country has a small population and a small local games industry. The Harris brothers built a global business from a regional base partly by accident of when they started — the Flash games market was geography-agnostic, and a small team in Auckland could reach the same global audience as one in San Francisco.

For background on the studio’s flagship series, see our history of Bloons Tower Defense.

Bloons: the breakout hit

The original Bloons released in 2007. The premise was simple: a monkey throws darts at balloons. You aim, you fire, you pop. The puzzle came from limited darts per level and bounce mechanics — you’d often need to use deflections to hit balloons in unreachable positions.

Bloons was an unusual kind of viral. It wasn’t designed to be addictive in the modern free-to-play sense; it was just satisfying. Each level was a self-contained puzzle, and the satisfaction loop of finally popping a tricky balloon kept people playing through hundreds of community-created levels.

The game spawned several direct sequels and spin-offs over the next few years, but the studio’s next big move was a pivot — taking the Bloons IP and applying it to a different genre.

Bloons Tower Defense (2007)

Bloons Tower Defense launched in 2007, late in the year the original Bloons released. It used the same balloons-and-monkeys vocabulary but inverted the gameplay — the balloons now moved through a path and the player placed towers (dart monkeys, tack shooters, ice monkeys) to pop them before they reached the end.

Tower defense was already a popular browser genre by 2007, but Bloons TD’s particular take — colorful, friendly, with deep upgrade trees and tower combinations — found a wide audience that other tower defense games missed. The series quickly became Ninja Kiwi’s main franchise.

Sequels arrived rapidly: Bloons Tower Defense 2 (2008), Bloons Tower Defense 3 (2008), Bloons Tower Defense 4 (2009), Bloons Tower Defense 5 (2011/2012). Each iteration added new tower types, map mechanics, and balloon variants. The series escalated steadily without losing its identity.

The mobile pivot

Bloons TD 5 was the title that successfully crossed from browser to mobile. Released in 2012 on iOS and Android as a paid app, it kept the studio’s core mechanics intact while adding monetization through optional in-app purchases. The mobile version sold well, and Ninja Kiwi started shifting its development center of gravity from Flash to mobile.

The transition was easier for Ninja Kiwi than for most Flash-era studios. The Bloons mechanics translated cleanly to touch. The art style worked on phone screens. And the studio’s brand recognition meant the mobile release didn’t have to fight for awareness — it had a built-in audience from the Flash games.

Bloons TD Battles (2013) added competitive multiplayer to the formula, which extended the studio’s reach into a different player base.

Bloons TD 6 and the streaming era

Bloons TD 6 released in 2018 on mobile, then later on Steam and console. It was a substantial reset of the series — full 3D graphics, redesigned tower system, new upgrade paths. It’s been the studio’s flagship ever since, with continuous content updates that have kept it in active rotation through 2026.

Bloons TD 6 also coincided with the rise of streaming and creator content. The game’s mix of strategic depth and chaotic visuals made it a natural fit for YouTube and Twitch — and Ninja Kiwi nurtured that community with regular updates and crossover content. Bloons TD 6 has been the studio’s biggest financial success.

Other Ninja Kiwi games

While Bloons is the franchise that defines Ninja Kiwi, the studio has released numerous other games. Highlights:

• SAS Zombie Assault series — top-down zombie shooter that ran through several Flash entries and a mobile installment.
• Bloons Adventure Time TD (2018) — a crossover with Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, combining Bloons mechanics with Adventure Time characters.
• Bloons Pop! — a casual match-style spin-off targeting a different audience.
• Battles 2 (2021) — a multiplayer successor to the original Bloons TD Battles.

The studio has experimented with non-Bloons IPs at various points, though the Bloons brand remains the commercial center.

The MTG acquisition

In 2021, Modern Times Group (MTG), a Swedish gaming and entertainment holding company, acquired Ninja Kiwi for a reported $203 million. MTG had been building a portfolio of mobile-first game studios, and Ninja Kiwi fit the pattern — established IP, predictable revenue, a strong community.

Notably, the acquisition didn’t change Ninja Kiwi’s day-to-day operation in obvious ways. The studio kept its Auckland base, kept its team, kept its development cadence. The deal was the kind of acquisition that buys a portfolio addition without disrupting what makes the addition valuable.

The Wikipedia Ninja Kiwi article covers the acquisition details and timeline.

The Flash-to-mobile transition lesson

Ninja Kiwi is one of the cleaner examples of a Flash-era studio that successfully made the transition to mobile and beyond. Most Flash studios either dissolved when the platform died, pivoted into work-for-hire, or shrank into smaller independent operations. Ninja Kiwi’s mobile sales overtook its browser revenue years before Flash’s discontinuation, which gave the studio runway and capital to keep growing.

The keys to that transition, from the outside: a portable IP (Bloons mechanics translate to any platform), strong brand recognition (Flash players followed the studio to mobile), and disciplined sequel cadence (each entry built on the last rather than reinventing).

The New Zealand games industry context

Ninja Kiwi is one of the largest games studios in New Zealand. The country has a small but real games industry — Grinding Gear Games (Path of Exile), RocketWerkz (Lawbreakers, Icarus), and PikPok (mobile games) are other notable studios. Ninja Kiwi sits among the more commercially successful by audience size.

Government support through the NZ Games Festival and industry advocacy groups has grown alongside studios like Ninja Kiwi, with the country positioning itself as a games development hub for the region.

What Ninja Kiwi looks like in 2026

In 2026, Ninja Kiwi continues to develop and operate Bloons TD 6 with regular content updates, alongside Bloons TD Battles 2 and several smaller titles. The studio has grown to over 100 employees from its 2-person founding, with most still based in New Zealand. The Bloons franchise has crossed milestones that put it among the most commercially successful tower defense IPs in gaming history.

For something simpler than a tower defense map, the Chrome Dino game is a one-button alternative — different scale, same browser, no balloons.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded Ninja Kiwi?

Ninja Kiwi was founded in 2006 by brothers Chris and Stephen Harris in Auckland, New Zealand. They remain associated with the studio though it is now owned by Modern Times Group (MTG).

What was Ninja Kiwi’s first big game?

The original Bloons (2007), a Flash puzzle game about popping balloons with darts. It became a portal hit and led to the Bloons Tower Defense series that defines the studio.

When did Bloons Tower Defense come out?

Bloons Tower Defense launched in 2007. The series has had six main entries plus several spin-offs, with Bloons TD 6 (2018) remaining the active flagship as of 2026.

Who owns Ninja Kiwi?

Modern Times Group (MTG), a Swedish gaming holding company, acquired Ninja Kiwi in 2021. The studio continues to operate as an independent unit from its New Zealand base.

Is Ninja Kiwi still making Flash games?

No. The studio shifted its development to mobile and Steam well before Flash was discontinued in 2020. Bloons TD 6 and its supporting titles are mobile-first with PC and console versions.

The bottom line

Ninja Kiwi is a rare browser-era success story — a Flash-era studio that not only survived the platform transition but is now substantially bigger and more profitable than it was in its Flash days. The Harris brothers built a global tower defense franchise from a small Auckland office, navigated the move from browser portals to mobile and Steam, and ended up running one of New Zealand’s most internationally recognized games studios. The Bloons mechanics keep working, and so does the studio.