What is The West built with?
Learn more about how The West was built, how it makes its money, and some of its technology choices.
The West is a "cowboy" RPG type PBBG game that was first launched in 2008. Unlike many of the newer and more popular games run by InnoGames, The West is exclusively available to play as a browser game and does not any have mobile apps available.
Who owns/operates it?
The West is owned by the German-based InnoGames which employs approximately 400 people and operates a large number of browser games.
How much money does it make?
As it is owned by a private company, the revenue and profit numbers are not readily available for the game, however, InnoGames reported that it had reached 2,000,000,000 EUR (approximately 2,344,000,000 USD at the time) in lifetime revenue1 across all of their games as of July 2025.
In the same report, it also lists 4 other games as accounting for over 1,600,000,000 EUR (approximately 1,875,000,000 USD at the time) in lifetime revenue, which leaves a maximum of 400,000,000 EUR (approximately 469,000,000 USD at the time) in lifetime revenue to split between the 21 other games they currently and/or previously operated.
If we naively assume an equal split, it's possible that The West could have earned 20,000,000 EUR (approximately 23,448,000 USD at the time) in lifetime revenue as of July 2025.
What engine does it use?
The West likely uses a proprietary framework or engine that would have had common components across all of their early games.
What languages does it use?
It uses HTML, CSS, and Javascript for the frontend and uses PHP and an unknown database for the backend.
Given the time period in which the game was created, the most likely choice at the time would have been MySQL for the database.
What tooling does it use?
The West uses uses MooTools on the frontend.
Where does it get graphics from?
InnoGames has dedicated employees to create artwork, one of which is a senior concept and texture artist Peter Siedl that has showcased some of the graphical work he has done for The West on a post on his ArtStation profile.
How do they advertise?
InnoGames uses Microsoft Audience Ads2 for The West among other advertising methods such as in network promotions.
The West is not currently running any ads within the Meta ad network via the game's Facebook page (as is most commonly done), however they may be doing so via another page.
Brief operational history
- First launched in early 2008
- The agency IMAScore produces a marketing trailer for it in 2011
- The ten year anniversary came in 2018 and saw a retrospective video posted and the release of a "classic" server