How I Built and Scaled a Free Browser Gaming Platform to 500+ Games with Next.js, MongoDB & AWS S3

The Problem

I wanted a clean, fast browser gaming site that actually works on mobile. Sites like Poki and CrazyGames are slow and ad-heavy. So I built AxoGamers (axogamer.com).

Stack

Frontend:  Next.js 15 (App Router) + TypeScript
Styling:   Tailwind CSS
Database:  MongoDB + Mongoose
Auth:      NextAuth.js
Storage:   AWS S3 + CloudFront CDN
Deploy:    Vercel
Analytics: Google Analytics 4 + AdSense

The Clever Part — Auto Game Sync

Instead of manually adding each game, I built a sync system:

1. Game files uploaded to S3 bucket as folders
2. Admin triggers sync job via dashboard
3. Job scans S3 for new folders
4. Creates MongoDB records automatically
5. Pings Google Indexing API for instant SEO indexing

// Auto-generate SEO title for each game
export function generateGameTitle(game: GameSEOData): string {
  const cat = game.category.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + game.category.slice(1);
  return `Play ${game.title} Free Online — ${cat} Game | AxoGamers`;
}

XP System

Players earn XP by playing games. Level formula:

export function calculateLevel(points: number): number {
  return Math.floor(Math.sqrt(points / 100));
}
// Level 0 = 0 XP, Level 1 = 100 XP, Level 10 = 10,000 XP

Results

• 500+ games live
• Automated game publishing pipeline
• Mobile-first — works on all devices
• SEO-optimized per-game pages

Try It

Play free at axogamer.com — feedback from developers very welcome!

What would you build differently? Let me know in comments 👇