Record revenue, an old hit reborn, and a risky new launch — inside the gaming giant’s most pivotal year since 2014
In the world of gaming, few companies have mastered the art of creating hits that last. Most games peak within months, only to fade into irrelevance as players move on. Yet in 2024, something remarkable happened. A mobile game that launched in 2018 saw unprecedented growth, outpacing even the most optimistic projections.
At the same time, a brand-new game from the same studio pulled in over one hundred million dollars in just seven months — but still fell short of expectations.
Supercell, the Finnish game developer behind Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, and Brawl Stars, had its best year in a decade. Revenue surged seventy-seven percent to reach nearly three billion dollars. For the first time since 2014, every single one of its live games grew in revenue.
But beneath the surface, the company faced a complex reality. Brawl Stars became a case study in how to extend a game’s life far beyond industry norms. Meanwhile, Squad Busters struggled to scale despite an explosive launch. The success of one and the challenges of the other raise an important question: what does it take to create a “forever game” in an industry where most new releases struggle to survive?
This is the story of Supercell’s record-breaking year, the lessons it learned, and the high-stakes bets that will shape its future.
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The Numbers Behind Supercell’s Record Year
Supercell does not release new games often. In fact, before Squad Busters arrived in 2024, the company had gone five years without a new global launch.
Yet, despite this cautious approach, the Finnish developer had its most profitable year in a decade.
Revenue for the year surged to €2.8 billion, or approximately $3 billion, a 77 percent increase compared to 2023. This kind of growth is rare in the mobile gaming industry, especially for a company that has been around for over a decade.
Even more notable, Supercell’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) climbed 78 percent to €876 million, or roughly $947 million.
For a gaming company that prides itself on small, autonomous teams and a selective approach to game releases, these numbers are exceptional. They also reflect a fundamental shift in how Supercell is managing its portfolio.
For the first time since 2014, all of Supercell’s live games — Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Hay Day, and Boom Beach — grew in revenue. This is significant because it goes against the typical mobile gaming trend.
Usually, as games get older, they generate less money. Players move on, engagement drops, and developers shift their focus to newer releases.
Yet in 2024, Supercell proved that its older games could still grow. Instead of relying on constant new game launches, the company doubled down on live updates, content expansions, and gameplay improvements.
The success of Brawl Stars in particular, which experienced unprecedented growth six years after launch, suggests that Supercell has found a formula for extending a game’s lifespan well beyond industry norms.
But not everything went according to plan. The launch of Squad Busters — Supercell’s first new game in years — generated over $100 million in revenue within seven months. By most standards, this would be considered a massive success.
Yet, inside the company, the game was seen as falling short of expectations.
This contrast between an aging game that became a breakout success and a new game that struggled to scale raises a fundamental question for the company.
Is Supercell better at sustaining old hits than it is at creating new ones?
That question is one of the most important facing the company as it looks ahead. But before getting into its future, it’s worth understanding exactly how Brawl Stars — a game launched in 2018 — became the biggest success story of 2024.
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Brawl Stars: The Comeback No One Saw Coming
For years, the mobile gaming industry followed a predictable cycle. A game would launch, generate excitement, and peak within the first six to twelve months.
After that, engagement would decline, players would move on, and developers would shift their focus to the next big thing.
But in 2024, Brawl Stars defied that logic. Six years after its initial release, the game experienced explosive growth across all key metrics: player engagement, revenue, and monthly active users.
By some estimates, it more than doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled its performance in several key areas.
This level of resurgence is almost unheard of in mobile gaming. Even Supercell’s CEO, Ilkka Paananen, admitted that the success of Brawl Stars caught him off guard.
The game wasn’t even a strategic priority at the beginning of the year. Supercell’s leadership had focused its resources on growing Clash of Clans — historically its biggest game — while Brawl Stars was not given the same level of attention.
Yet, against all expectations, it became the fastest-growing title in Supercell’s portfolio.
The key to this success? A shift in strategy that allowed for bigger updates, better content, and a more balanced approach to risk-taking.
For most of its history, Supercell had been cautious about increasing the size of its development teams. The company believed that smaller, independent teams made better creative decisions.
This approach worked well for new game development but was more challenging for live-service games, where regular content updates are essential for maintaining engagement.
By 2022, Supercell began experimenting with larger teams for its existing games, and Brawl Stars became the first to fully embrace this shift. Its development team expanded to 60–80 people — still small by industry standards but significantly larger than before.
This gave them the ability to work on multiple new features at the same time rather than taking an all-or-nothing approach to updates.
According to Frank Keienburg, who leads the Brawl Stars team, this change fundamentally altered the way the game evolved. Instead of just rolling out two or three major updates per year, the team introduced a mix of big and small features more frequently.
This approach allowed them to take more creative risks while also making smaller, safer bets that steadily improved the player experience.
At the same time, Brawl Stars introduced regional live events and deeper engagement programs for specific markets, something the game had not focused on before.
These moves helped reignite interest among lapsed players and attracted a wave of new ones — a rare feat for a game more than five years old.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from Brawl Stars’ resurgence is that a mobile game is never truly “old” if it continues to evolve.
While most companies treat live-service games as products with a fixed lifespan, Supercell proved that a game’s peak can happen years after its launch — if the right investments are made at the right time.
But while Brawl Stars thrived, Supercell’s newest release, Squad Busters, faced a much tougher road. The game had all the ingredients of a hit — strong early engagement, support from Apple and Google, and a massive marketing push.
Yet, despite generating more than $100 million in its first seven months, the game struggled to reach the scale that Supercell expected.
Why? The answer lies in how difficult it has become to launch a new game in today’s mobile industry.
Read also: Supercell’s Biggest Lesson: Why Brawl Stars Won Big and Squad Busters Didn’t
Squad Busters: When $100 Million Isn’t Enough
By most industry standards, Squad Busters had a strong launch. It generated more than $100 million in gross revenue within its first seven months, won Apple’s Game of the Year Award, and was one of the most downloaded mobile games of 2024. But inside Supercell, the game wasn’t viewed as a runaway success. Instead, it became a case study in how even the best-positioned new games struggle to break through in today’s mobile market.
The game’s development began in early 2020, built on the foundations of a previously canceled project. Supercell took a cautious approach, running multiple closed betas with over 120,000 players before deciding to go ahead with a global release. Even so, shortly after launch, it became clear that Squad Busters was not scaling at the level Supercell had hoped for.
The Problem: Finding the Right Audience
One of the biggest challenges was positioning. Squad Busters was designed to appeal to a broad audience, blending mechanics from multiple Supercell games into a single experience. In theory, this should have been a winning formula. But in practice, the game found itself caught between two very different player groups.
Casual players, who typically enjoy games like Hay Day or Clash of Clans, saw Squad Busters as too fast-paced and competitive. Meanwhile, mid-core gamers — those who play strategy-driven titles like Brawl Stars and Clash Royale — felt the game lacked depth and complexity.
This is a common problem in mobile gaming. If a game tries to appeal to everyone, it can end up being perfect for no one. Unlike Brawl Stars, which had six years to refine its gameplay loop, Squad Busters was expected to perform at a high level almost immediately.
Supercell’s leadership later acknowledged that the game may have needed a longer soft-launch period to better understand its true audience. But the company was also aware of the broader market forces working against it.
The Harsh Reality: Launching New Games Is Harder Than Ever
The mobile gaming industry has changed dramatically in the past decade. According to Newzoo’s 2024 Global Games Report, more than 60 percent of all playtime on mobile is spent on games that are six years old or older.
In other words, most players are sticking to established titles rather than switching to new releases.
This shift is part of a wider industry trend. In mobile gaming’s early years, new titles had a clear path to success. The app stores were still growing, user acquisition costs were lower, and competition was less intense.
Today, launching a new game requires an enormous marketing budget, strong brand recognition, and a near-perfect retention model.
Supercell was one of the few companies still committed to launching original titles rather than acquiring existing hits. Some of its competitors had effectively stopped making new games, choosing instead to buy studios with proven franchises.
But for Supercell, creating new games has always been part of its DNA.
The company wasn’t willing to abandon Squad Busters just because it hadn’t scaled immediately. Instead, the game team went back to the drawing board, working on a major update that would introduce fundamental changes to gameplay.
According to Eino Joas, who led the Squad Busters team, the challenge wasn’t just about growing the player base. It was about redefining the game in a way that would keep players engaged for years.
“Launch is just the beginning,” Joas said. “We have a much better understanding of our audience now, and we’re willing to make bold changes to get where we need to go.”
This approach was in stark contrast to how Supercell had handled some of its past projects. In 2023, the company shut down Clash Mini despite strong early engagement, believing its developers could have a bigger impact elsewhere.
The fact that Squad Busters was given more time suggests that Supercell still sees long-term potential in the game.
But the road ahead will not be easy. The market is more competitive than ever, and even a company with Supercell’s track record is not immune to the challenges facing mobile game developers.
If Brawl Stars was a reminder that games can have a second life, Squad Busters was proof that even a $100 million launch does not guarantee long-term success.
Supercell now faces a critical question: how does it keep making new hits in an industry where old games dominate?
The company’s answer lies in a new strategy — one that focuses not just on launching games, but on building the right teams to create them.
Supercell’s New Bet: The Spark Program and the Future of Game Development
If there is one lesson from Squad Busters, it’s that launching a new mobile game in 2024 is harder than ever. The market is saturated with legacy hits, player habits are harder to break, and the cost of acquiring new users has skyrocketed.
But rather than shift its strategy toward acquisitions or licensing, Supercell is doubling down on what it has always done: building new games from scratch.
However, the company is taking a different approach. Instead of focusing on greenlighting specific game concepts, Supercell is now investing in game teams first — before they even have a clear idea of what they will build.
This shift is embodied in The Spark Program, an internal initiative launched by Supercell to create new development teams under startup-like conditions. The idea is simple: if you have the right team, the game will follow.
How the Spark Program Works
The Spark Program functions like an incubator. Developers — both from inside and outside Supercell — are brought together in small teams and given the freedom to experiment with new ideas.
Rather than focusing on a single project from day one, teams go through intense game jams, rapid prototyping, and internal pressure testing.
The goal isn’t to find one winning idea, but rather to identify which teams have the right mix of creativity, problem-solving, and long-term vision to build a great game.
Supercell’s leadership believes this approach removes the pressure to create something successful too quickly.
In traditional game development, teams often lock into a single concept too early, only to realize months or years later that the idea doesn’t work. By contrast, Spark teams are free to kill ideas fast and move on.
So far, 30 developers have gone through the program, and five new game teams have emerged.
While it’s too early to say whether any of these teams will create the next Clash of Clans or Brawl Stars, the goal is clear: Supercell wants to create the best possible environment for new games to succeed.
This program also reflects a broader shift in how Supercell thinks about risk. Historically, the company has been known for its willingness to shut down projects that don’t meet its high standards.
This has led to the cancellation of dozens of unreleased games, and even some that had strong early engagement, like Clash Mini.
With the Spark Program, Supercell is formalizing this approach, ensuring that teams have the freedom to fail fast, iterate quickly, and only pursue ideas that have the potential to last for years.
Can Small Teams Still Compete in a Changing Industry?
Supercell’s approach to game development has always been based on small, independent teams with full creative control. Even at its largest, the company has only a few hundred employees — far smaller than most of its competitors.
For comparison:
- King, the maker of Candy Crush, has thousands of employees spread across multiple offices.
- Riot Games, owned by Tencent, has over 4,500 people working on League of Legends, Valorant, and other projects.
- MiHoYo, the studio behind Genshin Impact, has poured massive resources into AAA-quality mobile games with global appeal.
In this landscape, Supercell’s small-team model is becoming increasingly rare. Yet, the company remains committed to the belief that fewer people, more autonomy, and a long-term mindset will continue to set it apart.
Ilkka Paananen has often said that his goal is to be “the least powerful CEO” in the gaming industry. In practice, this means that Supercell’s leadership doesn’t dictate creative decisions.
Each game team operates as its own independent unit, making all decisions about game direction, development priorities, and launch timelines.
The success of Brawl Stars in 2024 is proof that this approach can work — when all the right conditions align.
The challenge now is whether the Spark teams can replicate that success in a market that is far more competitive than it was a decade ago.
Looking Ahead: Supercell’s Next Big Bets
While Supercell remains secretive about its future projects, some details have emerged about its next wave of games.
One of the most anticipated is Project R.I.S.E., a roguelite action RPG that is currently in testing.
Unlike most of Supercell’s past games, which focused on short-session competitive play, Project R.I.S.E. is designed to be a deeper, more cooperative experience.
Then there’s the question of what happens to Squad Busters. The game hasn’t been abandoned, but the team is reportedly working on fundamental changes to improve its long-term retention.
Whether those changes will be enough to transform it into a “forever game” remains to be seen.
Supercell has always been a company that thinks in decades rather than quarters. While 2024 was its most profitable year in a decade, its future will depend on whether it can continue to create games that last.
And in an industry where the biggest challenge isn’t making money, but making something that people will play for years, that’s a much harder problem to solve.
Supercell’s Biggest Challenge: Can It Keep Making Hits?
Supercell has always operated differently from the rest of the gaming industry. It doesn’t launch dozens of games each year. It doesn’t expand rapidly or acquire other studios.
It doesn’t even push for aggressive growth targets. Instead, it focuses on a slow, deliberate approach to making long-lasting games — and 2024 proved that this method still works.
The company posted record-breaking financial results, with revenue jumping 77 percent to €2.8 billion. For the first time in a decade, all of its existing games grew in revenue.
It also saw a historic surge in Brawl Stars, proving that an older game can still find new life years after launch.
But despite these wins, Supercell is facing some of the biggest challenges in its history.
Launching new games is more difficult than ever. The mobile industry has changed, and player habits are harder to disrupt.
Supercell’s first new release in years, Squad Busters, made over $100 million but failed to scale at the level the company expected. It is still being reworked, but whether it will become a long-term success remains an open question.
At the same time, the cost of acquiring new players has soared, and older games dominate the charts.
According to industry reports, more than 60 percent of all mobile playtime is spent on games that are six years old or older. This means that breaking into the top ranks with a brand-new game is harder than ever.
Supercell’s answer to this problem is the Spark Program, an internal incubator designed to build strong development teams first, before committing to specific games.
The idea is that by focusing on teams rather than concepts, the company can create a more flexible, long-term approach to game development.
This approach is unique in the industry. Most gaming companies start with an idea for a game and then assemble a team to build it.
Supercell is doing the opposite — finding the right teams first and then giving them the creative freedom to decide what to make.
So far, five new teams have been formed from the Spark Program. Whether they will produce the next Clash of Clans or Brawl Stars is still unknown.
But what is clear is that Supercell is preparing for the long game.
The Tencent Factor: How Much Independence Does Supercell Really Have?
One of the biggest unanswered questions about Supercell’s future is its relationship with Tencent.
The Chinese tech giant owns 84 percent of Supercell, having acquired the majority stake in 2016 for $8.6 billion.
At the time, Tencent promised to let Supercell remain operationally independent. So far, that has been the case.
Supercell still makes its own decisions, hires its own teams, and sets its own creative direction.
But Tencent’s role in the gaming industry has changed dramatically in recent years. Regulatory pressure in China has forced Tencent to seek more growth outside its home market.
This has led to heavier involvement in international gaming companies, including Riot Games (League of Legends) and Epic Games (Fortnite).
So far, Supercell has remained one of the few Tencent-owned studios that still operates largely on its own terms.
But if market conditions shift — or if Tencent decides to push for faster growth — Supercell’s independence could be tested.
For now, though, the Finnish developer continues to operate as if it were still a fully independent studio. And its results in 2024 show that this autonomy is still paying off.
The Road Ahead
Supercell’s biggest challenge is no longer making money — it’s making new hits.
The company has mastered the art of extending the life of its existing games, as Brawl Stars’ breakout year proved. But for its future to remain strong, it needs to find ways to launch new games that can compete in an increasingly difficult market.
Its Spark Program is a bold attempt to rethink how new games are created, focusing on people first, ideas second. And its investment in Project R.I.S.E. and other new titles suggests that it is still willing to take big creative risks.
Supercell has always played the long game.
Its success in 2024 is proof that this strategy still works — but whether it can create another breakthrough hit in the next few years will determine whether the company remains one of the most influential forces in gaming.
If it can, it won’t just be making successful games. It will be reshaping how the industry thinks about what makes a game last forever.
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