People who play Clash Royale have talked about whether or not the game is losing popularity. I remember how popular Clash Royale was in 2016, but I don’t know what’s going on with it now.
Is Clash Royale losing popularity? No, Clash Royale has more than 100,000 players at the same time, and any player can join a match in seconds, no matter where they live or what time it is. The game lost a lot of players and money in 2018, but the players and money are still around.
You might wonder why Clash Royale isn’t becoming less popular. I’ll answer that question and tell you when you can expect Clash Royale to die out and what needs to happen for that to happen.
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Why Isn’t Clash Royale Dead?
The game Clash Royale hasn’t died yet because Supercell keeps putting out updates to keep it interesting. Even though these changes haven’t made the game as popular as it was from 2016 to 2018, they have been good enough for the people who already play it.
Other factors include how easy it is to get into the game and how it feels like a party, how it builds relationships through its focus on the community, and the sunk-cost bias of players who have put a lot of time into it.
Let’s go into more detail about what each of these things is and what role they play in keeping Clash Royale going for so long.
Updates
Supercell’s money and cool new updates and ways to play the game have done more than anything else to keep Clash Royale going.
These updates add things like new cards, legendary cards, new chests, new game modes, clan wars, changes to clan wars, new arenas, insane buffs to OP characters (which creates buzz and content for influencers), reasonable buffs to OP characters (which brings back casual players and changes their decks), and a lot more.
These changes are also a big part of what will help the game get back to where it was before. But Supercell hasn’t gotten them right enough, and at this point in the game’s life, going back to Clash Royale’s golden age seems like a pipe dream.
Accessibility
Another thing that has kept Clash Royale going is that it is easy to play. Unlike League of Legends, you don’t have to keep a 10 GB game file on your computer that gets updated every two weeks and requires you to sit in front of your computer for 20 to 50 minutes to play or you’ll get banned for two weeks.
You can play Clash Royale from anywhere and at any time. You can play it while waiting for someone to pick you up at the airport, in a coffee shop, on the bus, or even while camping (if you have signal).
It doesn’t use a lot of bandwidth, it only updates once a month (but starting in 2021, it will only update every three months), the games only last three minutes, and there are no penalties for leaving early.
Overall, this is a plan for a game I can always see myself playing when I’m out and about and just plain bored. This brings in casual players who won’t make enough money to keep the game going, but they still make up about 50–70% of the player base.
They also give the 20–30% of players who bring in most of Supercell’s money a reason to keep playing.
Part-Style Game
When I used to play the game, there was one thing that stood out like a sore thumb. I would log on about every 2 to 3 hours (depending on how long it took to unlock a chest) to open a chest and play another game to get a new one.
I would also play just for gold even when all of my chest slots were full, but I would try not to miss the chance to open and get a new chest when the unlocking process was done.
This makes people want to open the chests more and more. Studies have shown that instead of a guaranteed reward, a chance of reward increases dopamine release.
This makes a game more addicting and is based on how casinos make money off of people who are addicted. Because when you open the chest, you never know what’s inside. It could be another spear goblin or a princess. That’s what keeps you interested.
Not to mention that it makes you feel like you’re “losing out” if you don’t get the next chest as soon as the previous one is open (even though the game honestly has no impact on life and most players are already maxed out).
Even though the game is a real-time strategy (RTS) game, it can feel like a party game that you can play whenever you want for 3 minutes of fun.
Clan Communities And Relationships
Clans are a big part of Clash Royale, just like they were in their previous hit game, Clash of Clans. Even though clans aren’t as important in Clash Royale as they were in Clash of Clans, they are still a big part of the game for those who make them so.
It makes a place where people can be themselves, make friends, and share memories. As social beings, that’s exactly what we want, and game companies know it.
For a small number of people in the community, it’s hard to move on from the game because of the relationships and friendships they made on it.
Because of these connections, players may stay longer than they would have otherwise.
I remember that the only reason I kept playing Clash Royale in 2015 was because of a clan I was in. I probably played for a year longer than I should have.
Sunk-Cost Bias
Last but not least, sunk cost bias is a big deal for some people. This mostly affects players who have spent a lot of time or money on the game and feel like they would lose everything if they quit.
Even though the sunk-cost bias doesn’t usually keep players forever, it does make players who have made these investments give the game a “second chance” and try to keep them entertained.
This also affects the best players because they get that same rush from being so good and practicing so much. If you quit the game, you will lose all the time you spent practicing, training, and, well, being great.
When Will Clash Royale Loss Its Popularity?
Based on what we know about the past, Clash Royale is expected to end in 2027. This estimate depends on how different future updates are, if the game’s publisher stops supporting it, and if the game’s top influencers quit.
We can make this guess based on how popular the game has been in the past and how popular games like Clash of Clans are.
Why Will Clash Royale Become Dead In 2027?
Since 2017, Clash Royale’s popularity has been going down a little bit, and the game hasn’t been able to bring it back.
This year, Supercell has decided to release big updates every three months instead of once a month, which seems like a mistake given that their updates have been hit or miss in the past.
Even so, Clash Royale is still popular enough to keep going. But if updates and changes are taken into account, the game shouldn’t be around after 2027.
When I say the game is dead, it’s because I think the number of players will drop so much that games will take a long time to load and Supercell will stop seeing it as a big source of income.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any players, though. The game will still have players because that’s how it works. It’s just that everyone will know that it’s sad and dead.
How Will Clash Royale Die?
Gameplay Getting Stale
As we’ve already said, updates have been the key to keeping the game alive. By adding new metas and ways to play, updates keep the game from getting boring.
Some updates were really useless and seemed to be added just to have an update. Those would be more visible changes or changes that are always the same.
If it didn’t change the way people played or how Clash Royale felt overall enough to make them want to come back, they didn’t.
A lot of the updates are also made to make Supercell more money, which is fine, but don’t expect these kinds of updates to keep the game feeling new. This was shown by the Magic Update.
Other Similar Games Take Over
Remember how I said that the game is easy to learn and that it is fun to play with a group? Those are two big reasons why it hasn’t died yet.
Well, since 2016, the mobile gaming industry has made more money than the PC, console, and handheld gaming industries put together. At the moment, the market is dominated by Tencent and smaller companies like Supercell, but that will soon change.
People can’t avoid getting into the mobile gaming scene because it pays too well. Supercell’s game was successful because it used the Clash of Clans brand and characters.
But if another big publisher can do mobile RTS card games as well as Supercell or even better, it will directly compete with the game and have a younger audience.
This could stop Clash Royale from growing and make the game’s end come even faster.
Supercell Stops Investing In The Game And Community
This would be the most important sign that a game is over. Even though it doesn’t look like Supercell is about to stop making the game because it still makes a lot of money.
But if this were to happen soon because they wanted to put all of their attention on a bigger and better project, it would mean the end of the game. In 2 to 3 months, the number of people who play the game will drop by a lot.
After about 9 months to a year, only a small group of people will play the game.
Arena of Valor, a mobile MOBA game made by Tencent, had the same thing happen to it. As soon as Riot Games said they were making League of Legends: Wild Rift, their parent company, Tencent, said they would stop supporting their old MOBA, Arena of Valor, to focus on making this one a success.
So, the game didn’t die out right away, but as the months went by and nothing was changed, the player base really stopped getting new players and almost all of the casual players left slowly. This leaves the committed community behind, which will soon start to leave next year and beyond.
Influencers Abandoning The Game
This isn’t something that will kill the game, but it will speed it up. Since 2014, influencers have made a big difference in how long games stay popular and how much hype they get.
Clash Royale hasn’t been doing too bad on YouTube and Twitch, to be honest. In 2020 and 2021, they’ve had some problems, like when Team Liquid stopped providing general support for the game when the CRL switched to a player-based focus and when their best player, Surgical Goblin, quit the game and retired the year before.
Final Thoughts
Many of us here think that Clash Royale is losing popularity, when in fact, it still grows every year! We cannot make any right guess when Clash Royale will lose its popularity. However, one thing is for sure, and that is there is nothing permanent in this world. There will be new trends and games that will replace Clash Royale soon!