In 2024, Clash of Clans generated over 355 million U.S. dollars in in-app purchase revenues. Supercell's main IP is still going strong after it's initial release in 2012. The more recently released Clash Royale generated 202 million U.S. dollars in IAP revenues during the same period.

First released in 2012, Clash of Clans is a mobile strategy game developed by Supercell. Although the game is free to download, players can purchase gems, the in-game currency, to advance their villages and acquire special items. In-app revenue within the game peaked at a cumulative 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2015. In 2024, this figure had declined to a still impressive 355 million U.S. dollars.

Clash of Clans is the top-grossing mobile title published by Finnish mobile gaming publisher Supercell, generating approximately 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in lifetime in-app purchase revenues as of January 2025. Second-ranked Clash Royale has generated about 3.19 billion U.S. dollars in lifetime IAP revenues.

Finnish mobile game developer and publisher Supercell generated approximately two billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2024. That year, the company reported annual earnings of 287 million U.S. dollars. Supercell regularly ranks among the leading Google gaming app publishers based on revenue in the United States. As of 2025, Supercell has only fully released six mobile games, all of which are commercially successful. Early beginnings: Hay Day After starting out with browser games, Supercell started developing games for mobile devices in 2011. In early 2012, the company released its first international game, Hay Day. The free-to-play game with in-game purchase options was similar to Zynga’s then-popular farming simulator Farmville and quickly became one of the top grossing mobile titles worldwide. Supercell immensely profited off the rapidly growing mobile gaming market and as of January 2025, Hay Day’s lifetime in-app revenue amounted to almost 1.4 billion U.S. dollars. Finding the niche: strategy games Released in 2012, multiplayer strategy game Clash of Clans is Supercell’s other big hit and has remained the company’s top-grossing app in 2024. The mobile app title allows players to form groups with other gamers called clans, train troops, and attack other players to earn resources. Facing off against other players in clan wars is one of the key components of the game, with loot and trophies available for the winners. Clash of Clans also features a single-player mode, but the core gameplay it based on multiplayer. Squad Busters Supercell’s latest blockbuster mobile gaming title Squad Busters was released in May 2024 and features characters from Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Hay Day, and Boom Beach. Squad Busters is a multiplayer online battle area (MOBA) hero shooter where players compete against other players or AI opponents in multiple game modes with hero characters they unlocked via gameplay or purchases. Squad Busters was Supercell’s second-most downloaded mobile game in 2024, generating more than 46 million downloads during that year.

Finnish mobile games developer and publisher Supercell reported pre-tax earnings (with deferrals) of 295.8 million U.S. dollars in 2024, an decrease from the 627 million U.S. dollars in the previous year. Supercell is the publisher of Clash of Clans, one of the top grossing mobile titles worldwide.

In 2024, Brawl Stars was Supercell's most popular app, with over 94 million combined downloads across the Apple App Store and Google Play Store worldwide. The multiplayer title was also Supercell's top-grossing game of the year. The success of freemium mobile games All of Supercell’s major mobile gaming releases successfully use the freemium business model. This is a strategy by which players can play the game free of charge, but money is required for additional features or in-game items. Some of these items enhance gameplay, while others are purely cosmetic. The freemium business model is a recipe for success – all the highest-grossing mobile gaming apps are free-to-play (F2P) with in-app purchases. Supercell – a Finnish gaming success story Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Supercell is a mobile game development company that debuted its first and only non-mobile gaming title, Gunshine.net, before switching to mobile gaming. In May 2012, Supercell published its first mobile game, Hay Day, a version of Zynga's successful Facebook game FarmVille. In August 2012, Supercell released Clash of Clans, and the rest is history – currently, Clash of Clans sits at over five billion U.S. dollars in lifetime gross and is still a popular title after a decade on the market.The success of these titles led to a rapid growth of Supercell and growing interest from Asian mobile leaders. A collaboration with Japanese video game company GungHo led to a later acquisition by GungHo and Softbank Corporation, a multinational investment company. GungHo and Softbank acquired 51 percent of Supercell’s shares for a total of 1.1 billion euros — the largest price for a Finnish private company ever. After various transactions, Supercell was bought out by Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings in 2016. In 2024, the annual revenue of Supercell amounted to approximately 1.44 billion U.S. dollars.

Among the leading strategy gaming applications in the United States, the title Clash of Clans had the highest revenue, nearly 30 million U.S. dollars, as of Q2 2021. Clash Royale saw revenue of almost 17 million U.S. dollars, being the second one in this category. As of September, Clash of Clans had IAP revenues of 350 million U.S. dollars worldwide in 2021.

In 2024, Brawl Stars was Supercell's most popular app with approximately 662 million U.S. dollars in revenues across the Apple App Store and Google Play worldwide. The MOBA hero shooter title also generated more than 94 million global downloads during the measured period.

Over the past decade, the Chinese technology group Tencent Holdings has invested heavily in developing its gaming business. In 2024, its online games grossed *** billion yuan – a considerable increase compared to the previous year. This made up almost ** percent of the Chinese tech giant’s annual revenue. Tencent’s gaming empire The entertainment giant has remained as the world’s top game publisher by revenue, leading the industry with ** million U.S. dollars in quarterly earning more than the second placeholder, Sony. Tencent's mobile games Peacekeeper Elite and Honor of Kings have been well-received in the Chinese market. In fact, the Chinese conglomerate controls stakes in some of the world’s popular games, such as League of Legends, Fortnite, and Clash of Clans. Its battle-royale game PUBG Mobile has gained immense popularity in overseas markets. The goldmine of online gaming in China In a country with over *** million gamers, the gaming market in China is massive and lucrative. Since 2017, the revenue of China’s video game industry has surpassed *** billion yuan and continued to grow steadily. Undoubtedly, Chinese consumers are highly engaged in mobile gaming. Role-playing, real-time strategy, shooter, and fighting games are the most popular genres. Besides mobile games, eSports is another booming game sector in China with role-playing games (RPG) and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) being the major revenue powerhouse. Having scoped out the market potential of eSports, Tencent invested in the eSports streaming platform Douyu and acquired Douyu’s biggest domestic rival Huya in **********. It is quite unlikely for other market players to shake Tencent’s dominating status in the next few years.

As of January 2024, Genshin Impact was the fastest mobile gaming app to generate five billion U.S. dollars in player spending. The RPG game, developed by miHoYo, generated one billion U.S. dollars in player spending in just six months after its initial launch on September 28, 2020. The second-fastest gaming app to generate five billion U.S. dollars in player spending was Clash of Clans, doing so within 51 months after launch.

Mergers and acquisitions in the gaming industry are often worth billions and create lots of buzz. In January 2022, the two biggest gaming acquisitions ever happened within barely a week of each other — on January 10, Take-Two Interactive announced its purchase of social gaming company Zynga, signaling a stronger focus on mobile gaming. January 18, 2022, saw the surprise notice of Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard for 68.7 billion U.S. dollars, which was finally closed (after a long battle for regulatory approval) in October 2023. Microsoft’s gaming IP shopping spree Microsoft already made news in September 2020 when announcing that the tech giant had acquired video game holding company ZeniMax for 7.5 billion U.S. dollars. This deal subsequently made Microsoft the owner of ZeniMax-owned id Software, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, as well as publisher Bethesda Softworks with its Bethesda Game Studios, and ZeniMax Online Studios. In September 2014, Microsoft acquired the Swedish Minecraft studio Mojang for 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. Microsoft has been shifting towards service games and has been producing less first-party titles over the past years, so it is no surprise that the company’s current strategy is buying up popular studios and gaming publishers to make games for them. In the second fiscal quarter of 2024 (October to December 2024), revenues of Microsoft's Xbox content and services segment increased by two percent compared to the previous year. Biggest video gaming acquisitions ever Up until January 2022, Tencent's June 2016 purchase of Finnish gaming publisher Supercell ranked first as the biggest video game industry acquisition with a deal size of 8.6 billion U.S. dollars. Supercell is a mobile game company and the developer and publisher of the top-grossing mobile title Clash of Clans. The race for top gaming content is heating up again as mobile gaming revenues explode, and companies are trying cash in on gaming’s relevance as a social space online.

In July 2023, the App Store offered more than one million gaming apps. In contrast, the store had 3.83 million non-gaming apps available in the same period. During the third quarter of 2022, the number of mobile apps in the Apple App Store decreased by almost 25 percent compared to the previous quarter.

Apple App Store The Apple App Store opened on July 10, 2008 via an update to iTunes. This coincided with Apple’s launch of the second-generation iPhone 3G which supported mobile apps. Applications in the App Store are only available for iOS devices - the tech industry frequently refers to Apple's ecosystem of devices and operating systems as a "walled garden."

Leading iOS categories As of 2022, the most popular Apple App Store category was gaming with over 13.66 percent of apps being games. The second most popular app category was business, followed by education, and lifestyle apps. Mobile gaming apps usually generate the majority of their revenue through advertising and in-app purchases with only little more than a third of games being paid downloads. Popular gaming apps in the App Store include Clash Royale, Candy Crush Saga, casino games and Clash of Clans, the currently top grossing iOS game.

In June 2022, Subway Surfers was the most popular Android gaming app in the United States with almost 2.3 million daily active users (DAU). The endless runner game was released in 2012 and has remained in demand ever since. Clash of Clans was ranked second with 1.87 million daily active users.