Game Localization for the Turkish Market
Türkiye is a unique country straddling Europe and Asia. Despite economic inflation, its gaming market is rapidly growing, making it an ideal entry point for developers and publishers aiming to attract players from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region). The number of gamers in Türkiye is increasing year by year, with a strong demand for localized games — as many players speak only their native tongue. Quality localization into Turkish requires an understanding of the country’s market as well as its linguistic and cultural nuances. Let’s dive in!
Why game companies should pay attention to the Turkish market
The Turkish gaming market is one of the fastest growing in the MENA region and the 18th largest globally. According to a report by the marketing agency Gaming in Türkiye | MENA | EU, the market was worth $580 million in 2023. Although revenue in dollars declined compared to the previous year, this was largely due to inflation: measured in Turkish lira, the market actually grew by 34% (over 3 billion lira).
Popularity of gaming platforms
Mobile games remain the largest segment of Türkiye’s gaming market, with $315 million in revenue in 2023. Statista forecasts that by 2029, this number will exceed $500 million. In terms of revenue, Türkiye is catching up with leading European markets. Moreover, it was less affected by the post-COVID-19 slowdown. The most profitable mobile genres in Türkiye are strategy, RPGs, battle royales, and MOBAs. In terms of downloads, hyper-casual games, simulators, and puzzle games lead the way.
Top 5 mobile games by revenue. Left to right: PUBG MOBILE, 101 Okey Plus Rummy Board Game, Whiteout Survival, Royal Match, Roblox
The second most lucrative segment is PC gaming, with $145 million in revenue, followed by consoles at $120 million. On these platforms, popular genres include shooters, survival simulators, sandbox games, RPGs, and battle royales. Also on PC, strategy games are popular, while on consoles — sports and racing games.
Turkish gamers
Gaming in Türkiye estimates the total number of Turkish gamers at 47 million. Of these, 55% are male, 45% female. Young people aged 18 to 34 are the most active players.
Distribution of Turkish gamers by age in 2023 (Gaming in Türkiye | Mena | EU)
Mobile gaming dominates in terms of user base: between 2020 and 2023, the number of mobile players grew by 8 million, reaching 44 million. The numbers of PC and console players, which had been growing for several years, have recently declined. In 2023, there were 20 million PC gamers and 11 million console gamers in Türkiye — 4.5 million and 4 million fewer, respectively, than in 2022.
Distribution of Turkish gamers by platform, 2020–2023 (Statista)
Localizing into Turkish
Unfortunately, game developers don’t always include Turkish in their localizations. This may be due to outdated assumptions, or a mistaken belief that the investment won’t pay off. In reality, Türkiye’s active gaming audience makes it a highly promising market — but localization is essential, as many Turkish players do not speak foreign languages. According to the EF English Proficiency Index (which includes 113 countries), Türkiye ranks 66th. On Steam, Turkish is among the top 15 most-used languages. Turks love their language and culture, so offering a localization is often a deciding factor in winning them over. Conversely, localizing into other less common languages while excluding Turkish can lead to backlash or even boycotts.
Technical challenges
Localizing into Turkish comes with some unique challenges — primarily technical ones. Let’s take a closer look.
Special characters
The Turkish alphabet is based on Latin script but includes several diacritics: Ç, Ğ, İ, Ö, Ş, Ü. Developers must first of all ensure that all in-game fonts support these characters. Also, the Turkish alphabet contains two different letters ‘i’ — one with a dot (i) and one without (ı) — whereas English only has one. Mixing them up can completely change a word’s meaning. For example, the word “ılık” means “warm”, and “ilik” — bone marrow. And that’s a polite example — in some cases, a single misplaced letter can turn a completely normal sentence into profanity. Issues with these letters often arise with automatic capitalization, where the lowercase Turkish ‘i’ gets turned into ‘I’ (as in English), rather than the correct ‘İ’. A wrong letter can also lead to mispronunciation, which can come across as sloppy or unprofessional. For example, if the city İzmir is mistakenly written with a capital I, it becomes something more like “Uzmir.”
Sentence length
Turkish is an agglutinative language, meaning words are formed by adding various suffixes and prefixes to a root. This can result in some fairly long constructions. In games, where line length is often limited, this becomes a real problem — especially in interfaces, such as menus. To ensure that everything fits properly, we recommend leaving about 30% extra space for text compared to English.
Placeholders
Placeholders (e.g., {player_name}) are common in games, used to insert variables like usernames, damage numbers, or ability timers. This can also create issues in Turkish.
Take, for example, the line: “Send energy to {player_name}.” In translation, you can’t just replace “to” with the Turkish equivalent. As mentioned, in Turkish, suffixes are used instead of such prepositions. Moreoever, the right suffix to use depends on the final letter of the base word. Therefore, different variables in the placeholder require different suffixes: for example, “to Rodrigo” becomes “Rodrigo’ya”, while “to Elly” becomes “Elly’ye”.
Further complications arise when placeholders are preceded by a number. In Turkish, numerals are followed by the singular form, not the plural as in English and many other languages. Thus, “5 cats” is “5 kedi”, not “5 kediler”. Resolving these issues requires close collaboration between developers and localizers — there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here.
Translators often need to completely restructure sentences to preserve the original meaning, grammar, and placeholders.
Cultural nuances
In addition to such technicalities, localization into any language must also take cultural aspects into account. Turkish is no exception.
Religion
Some topics demand particular sensitivity — religion being at the top of the list. There have been cases where the Turkish government banned games for showing disrespect toward religion. In 2016, authorities even launched a website where players could report games they believed contained content offensive to Muslim beliefs. The site’s stated purpose was to raise awareness about such issues — including among game developers themselves.
To avoid problems, it’s important to consider cultural context and adapt the translation accordingly. And this applies not only to explicitly religious content. For example, Friday is a holy day in Islam, and the word “black” in Turkish carries negative connotations. This means the term “Black Friday” — often used for November sales on both platforms and in-game stores — should not be translated literally. A better alternative might be “legendary,” “bright,” or something similar.
A good example of adapting religious symbolism is Nintendo’s classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. An earlier version of the game featured a crescent moon and star symbol resembling the Islamic one, and one of the temples had background music that sounded like a Muslim chant. In later releases, both the symbol and the music were changed to avoid unwanted associations.
Politics
When localizing games, it’s sometimes necessary to tread carefully around political themes that are considered taboo in the target market — either softening related content or removing it altogether. In Türkiye, such themes may include the Kurds or the Cyprus issue.
Kurds are Türkiye’s largest ethnic minority, settled mainly in the east of the country. Some Kurds advocate for the independence of the provinces they inhabit. In Türkiye, it’s officially forbidden to even suggest the possibility of creating an independent Kurdish state on Turkish territory. At the same time, it’s perfectly fine to discuss the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Some organizations that campaign for Kurdish rights are officially designated as terrorist groups in Türkiye. Such groups — and others like them — must not be portrayed positively in localization. Ideally, the game should make it explicitly clear that they are considered terrorists.
In the case of Cyprus, the sensitive issue revolves around the events of 1974. That year, the Cypriot military — ethnically Greek — attempted a coup to unite Cyprus with Greece. This triggered a civil war, and Türkiye sent troops into the north of the island, with the stated intent of protecting the Turkish population of Cyprus. As a result, the island was effectively divided in two along ethnic lines, with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus established in the north. To this day, this republic is recognized only by Türkiye, where the operation is referred to as a “peacekeeping mission” and the word “invasion” is forbidden.
Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the founder of the modern Turkish state, whose sweeping reforms shaped every aspect of society. His historical importance to Türkiye is comparable to that of George Washington in the U.S. Turks hold Atatürk in deep reverence. His image is everywhere, and his quotes have become national sayings. This caused trouble for the Turkish localization of Cyberpunk 2077, a game where characters don’t hold back when it comes to profanity. A famous quote by Atatürk — İstikbal göklerdedir (“The future is in the skies”) — was twisted into a vulgar joke: İstikbal götlerdedir (“The future is in the asses”). Turkish players were outraged, and the localization team had to publicly apologize and change the translation.
Rising to the challenge
Yes, there are many nuances to consider when localizing into Turkish. But the rich history of the language offers localizers ample room for creativity. For example, in a Turkish translation of The Lord of the Rings, the elves speak in Old Ottoman Turkish (also called Old Anatolian Turkish), lending their speech an archaic and ceremonial tone. Such creativity can serve as an inspiration when adapting the speech of fantasy characters. To reduce potential difficulties, we recommend providing translators with as much context as possible, and involving native professionals in both localization and testing.
Who to trust with Turkish localization
Now that you understand the Turkish gaming market and the nuances of localization, it’s time to choose the right partner. For the best results, we recommend turning to experienced professionals. Ideally, a world-renowned company with an office in Türkiye — like Logrus IT. In fact, our Turkish colleagues contributed directly to this article — we’d especially like to thank project manager Hakan Albayrak.
Logrus IT has extensive experience localizing all kinds of games — from mobile and indie titles to AAA blockbusters — in over 20 languages. Our portfolio includes collaborations with Ubisoft, Wargaming, Nexters, and Moonton. You can trust us to deliver a turnkey localization — complete with voiceover, testing, and quality control — saving you time and ensuring an outstanding final product.
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