Clash of Clans
Documents about Clash of Clans
Modernizing Rendering at Supercell
Supercell has successfully modernized its rendering architecture to ensure the long-term viability of its high-revenue mobile titles, including Clash of Clans and Hay Day.
- Supercell developed a new core rendering framework called 'Thor' to replace legacy OpenGL ES systems, enabling better abstraction and support for modern APIs like Metal and Vulkan across their portfolio of games.
- The transition to Thor allowed Supercell to significantly reduce energy consumption on mobile devices, with internal metrics showing improved power efficiency for high-traffic titles like Clash of Clans.
- To manage the risks of updating billion-dollar live games, Supercell implemented a dual-path rendering system that allowed the new and old pipelines to coexist, enabling a phased, game-by-game migration.
Call of Duty: Mobile Joins the Snapdragon Pro Series
The ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) has entered into a two-year partnership with Activision Blizzard to integrate Call of Duty: Mobile into the Snapdragon Pro Series, a multi-title mobile esports league powered by Samsung Galaxy.
- ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) and Activision Blizzard have signed a two-year partnership to include Call of Duty: Mobile in the Snapdragon Pro Series.
- The 2023 iteration of the Snapdragon Pro Series featuring Call of Duty: Mobile offers a total prize pool of $1.5 million USD.
- In-game qualifiers for the new title are scheduled to begin on April 27, 2023, across all supported regions.
More Than 41,000 People Attended DreamHack San Diego
DreamHack San Diego, a three-day gaming lifestyle festival held at the San Diego Convention Center from April 7–9, 2023, achieved a record-breaking attendance of over 41,000 people.
- DreamHack San Diego attracted over 41,000 attendees during its three-day run from April 7–9, 2023, marking the largest U.S. DreamHack festival to date.
- The event featured multiple esports and LAN competitions that collectively awarded nearly $1 million in total prize money.
- Key tournament prize pools included $310,000 for the Rocket League Championship Series Winter Major, $250,000 for the DreamHack Open featuring Fortnite, and $130,000 for the Magic: The Gathering U.S. Regional Championship.
DreamHack San Diego: Esports Schedule and Highlights
DreamHack San Diego, organized by the ESL FACEIT Group, held its inaugural gaming festival at the San Diego Convention Center from April 7–9, 2023.
- DreamHack San Diego will take place from April 7–9, 2023, at the San Diego Convention Center, marking the festival's debut in the city with Intel and Monster Energy as marquee sponsors.
- The event features the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) Winter Major, which includes a $310,000 prize pool for the top 16 North American teams.
- A 'drop-in' Zero Build Fortnite tournament will offer a $250,000 prize pool, open to all attendees who hold a 'Bring Your Own Computer' (BYOC) ticket.
Brawl Stars: How Supercell Reimagined the MOBA
Brawl Stars serves as a prominent case study in the evolution of the mobile MOBA genre, having generated $1.4 billion in lifetime revenue through a strategy of constant iteration and structural refinement.
- Brawl Stars experienced a significant performance decline in 2022, with annual downloads dropping 32% and total revenue falling to approximately half of the previous year's figures.
- Supercell has aggressively managed the game's feature set by frequently introducing and subsequently removing game modes, such as Lone Star and Takedown, to eliminate toxic gameplay or address excessive complexity.
- The introduction of the Brawl Pass created a sustainable monetization loop where players can earn enough Gems through the free track to purchase every second pass, incentivizing long-term retention and habitual spending.
Supercell Plans to Take “Bigger Creative Risks” With New Games
Supercell is shifting its strategic focus toward higher creative risk-taking to revitalize its development pipeline and maintain its position in the mobile gaming market.
- Supercell is pivoting to higher creative risk-taking after 2022 revenue fell 6% to €1.77 billion and EBITDA dropped 14% to €632 million.
- The company has not launched a new global hit since 2018, despite established titles like Clash of Clans and Hay Day generating lifetime revenues of $10 billion and $2 billion, respectively.
- Strategic development is shifting away from data-driven formulas toward developer passion, with five new titles currently in development at the Helsinki headquarters.
What Kind of Mobile Games Can Generate More Than $1 Billion in Revenue?
The analysis investigates the characteristics of mobile titles that have surpassed a cumulative $1 billion in revenue, drawing on data from PocketGamer and SocialPeta.
- Nearly 60 mobile games have surpassed $1 billion in cumulative revenue, with 4X strategy games emerging as the most dominant genre, accounting for nine of these titles.
- Chinese developers are a major force in the billion-dollar club, responsible for 21% of all qualifying titles and specifically dominating the 4X strategy genre through studios like FunPlus.
- High-revenue games require massive marketing scale, averaging 47,000 unique creatives per title, with video ads comprising 95% of the advertising mix for top performers like 'Rise of Kingdoms'.
How Mobile Game Developers Boosted Downloads and Revenue With Halloween 2022 Events
Mobile game developers utilize seasonal events, specifically Halloween, as a strategic tool to drive player engagement, increase downloads, and boost revenue through LiveOps.
- Halloween-themed cosmetic items are a primary revenue driver, with developers successfully using limited-time discounts that revert to full price once the event concludes.
- Mario Kart World Tour saw daily revenue double following its October 18, 2022, Halloween update, aided by a strategic increase in the amount of premium currency provided in IAP bundles.
- Clash of Clans leveraged a major Town Hall update on October 10, 2022, to drive a 500% increase in downloads, using the high traffic to cross-promote its Halloween-themed Battle Pass and base skins.
Top Grossing Mobile Games in Southeast Asia: October 2022
The mobile gaming market in Southeast Asia experienced a contraction in October 2022, generating approximately $200 million in total player spending across the Apple App Store and Google Play.
- The Southeast Asia mobile games market generated $200 million in October 2022, representing a 10% year-over-year decline in total player spending.
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang by Moonton was the region's top-grossing game, earning $10.4 million with a 2.6% year-over-year increase.
- Garena Free Fire ranked second in the region with $7.8 million in user spending, primarily driven by the Thai market which accounted for 41.9% of its revenue.
Mobile Game Market Review: October 2022
The mobile game market in October 2022 was characterized by a significant focus on seasonal engagement and evolving monetization strategies across the United States, China, and Japan.
- Major mobile titles are shifting away from traditional gacha mechanics; Mario Kart Tour replaced randomized warp pipes with a Daily Spotlight Shop, and Brawl Stars removed gacha requirements for unlocking high-level passive Gears.
- Clash of Clans experienced a 500% surge in daily iOS revenue following the release of its latest Town Hall update in October 2022.
- Garena Free Fire is monetizing virtual fashion by launching a 'Trend+' collectibles album, effectively treating in-game cosmetic outfits as proprietary fashion brands.
Get Social: Building Effective Clan Features
Clan features are essential tools for enhancing player retention and monetization in free-to-play mobile games.
- Clans significantly improve long-term retention and monetization by fostering social interdependence, as evidenced by Clash of Clans, which generated $296.75M in the first eight months of 2022 despite being over a decade old.
- Games with clan-like features demonstrate higher lifetime value (LTV) compared to competitors, as seen in Idle Mafia and Egg Inc., which outperformed their peers in the market.
- Effective clan systems drive engagement through three core mechanisms: progression vectors (clan levels), return triggers (daily donation limits or events), and social obligation (peer pressure to contribute).
From Clash of Clans to Everdale: Scaling from Solo to Social
The evolution of mobile village-building games necessitates a fundamental shift from solitary, combat-oriented loops toward inherently collaborative, social ecosystems.
- Supercell transitioned from the single-player architecture of Clash of Clans to the social, multi-village model of Everdale by implementing a shared logic state that allowed multiple players to interact with a single, synchronized valley.
- To handle complex social interactions, the team moved away from hard-coded singletons toward a well-defined action object system that encapsulates player actions, validation checks, and rollback logic.
- By allowing objects to declare 'max fast forward ticks' and enabling systems to skip updates for hundreds of ticks, the team reduced server load by 80% to 90% compared to previous architectures.