Supercell, creator of games like Clash Of Clans, generated $2.3 billion in revenue and profited $964 million last year. The $5.5 billion-dollar gaming company is worth more than Evernote, Eventbrite, and BuzzFeed combined. Just stop and think about that for a second.
A company that released a total of four mobile games is more valuable than 100 million Evernote users, the largest event hosting company, and one of the most popular media companies in history.
But the most impressive fact about Supercell is how the company succeeded with only 150 employees compared to the 1,000+ combined employees from Evernote, Eventbrite, and BuzzFeed. This makes each Supercell employee worth more than $5 million.
I didn’t believe the numbers myself until I read how its recently released game, Clash Royale, topped the App Store charts in 44 countries. The app performed so well that game developers in China released a copycat version to piggyback on Supercell’s success.
Supercell’s four games (Clash Of Clans, Hay Day, Boom Beach, and Clash Royale) are free to download and make money through in-app purchases. Pocket Gamer analyzed the behavior of one of Supercell’s games, Clash of Clans, and saw a clear pattern of heavy users paying the most money. PG noticed a 12% decrease of players making in-app purchases and a 27% decrease in the volume of in-app purchases from January to March of 2015. On the surface, it looks like Supercell isn’t doing well when in reality, the average value of in-app purchases increased when committed players paid more money. Many people on reddit admit to paying tens or hundreds of dollars, and one person dropped close to $5,000!
Although the trend of addicted gamers paying money for flashy upgrades isn’t new, the amount of money generated is overwhelming. Supercell created a gaming monopoly that even China can’t imitate. Most people flinch when they’re asked to pay $2.99 for an iPhone app, which makes people who spend anything over $10 on mobile games complete suckers. But as long as Supercell can keep milking money out of these addicted gamers, it’ll keep its reputation as the world’s largest mobile gaming monopoly.
