Hot Five: Supercell and Brawl Stars dominate in our most-read stories roundup
Last week was all about one of the most hotly anticipated game releases of the year (that some thought might not happen): the launch of Supercell’s Brawl Stars.
The Clash Royale developer finally pushed the game live globally on December 12th, making it just the company’s fifth ever full release.
Most-read brawlers
During that launch, PocketGamer.biz was invited to Supercell’s Helsinki HQ and given an all-access pass to speak with its CEO and teams about the inner workings of one of the world’s most famous studios. We’ll continue to publish more interviews this week.
Elsewhere, we re-published our analysis of whether Brawl Stars will be bigger in the East rather than the West. Traditionally genres similar to the real-time 3v3 PvP shooter have been more popular in Asia.
Lastly, NetEase’s Knives Out had a great November after it performed better than both PUBG Mobile and Fortnite, and we’ve been tracking the download and grossing performance of, you guessed it, Brawl Stars since launch.
#1: Supercell launches Brawl Stars globally
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Supercell launches Brawl Stars globally »After 544 days in soft launch, Supercell launched its real-time 3v3 PvP shooter Brawl Stars globally.
The game had many design iterations throughout that period, but after heading to Android and Asia this year, the team saw enough potential in it to release the game to the whole world.
Brawl Stars community manager Ryan Lighton said Supercell had “never prepared more for a game launch”.
The Finnish dev invited more than 70 content creators to its HQ to celebrate the release, with many literally pushing the launch button to send it live in their regions.
#2: Inside Supercell: All-access to the world's most famous mobile games developer
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Inside Supercell: All-access to the world's most famous mobile games developer »Supercell is one of the world’s most famous games developers and it’s also well-known for its unique developer-first studio structure.
Its own founder, Ilkka Paananen, refers to himself as ‘the world’s least powerful CEO’ - handing over key decisions like what games to design and launch to the teams.
PocketGamer.biz got a chance to dive deeper into the company's setup and find out what makes it tick after being given an all-access pass to speak with its talented teams.
We’ve already spoken to Paananen about how Supercell operates and its recent M&A strategy. We’ll have more from the teams of Brawl Stars, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Boom Beach soon.
#3: Is Supercell's Brawl Stars set to rise in the East rather than the West?
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Is Supercell's Brawl Stars set to rise in the East rather than the West? »Brawl Stars is now available to all - but back during soft launch it wasn’t always so obvious that game would get that global release.
There were signs of potential though, particularly in Eastern markets.
In this republished article, we took a closer look at publicly available data and estimates of its performance in soft launch markets to see whether Brawl Stars may well be Supercell’s first Asia-first hit.
#4: Knives Out out-earns both PUBG Mobile and Fortnite in November revenue results
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Knives Out out-earns both PUBG Mobile and Fortnite in November revenue results »NetEase’s Knives Out was the Chinese publisher’s attempt to quickly get into the battle royale craze on mobile before PUBG and Fortnite.
If its revenues are anything to go by, the plan has worked. The PUBG-like game brought in an estimated $52 million worldwide in November.
That puts it above both Epic and PUBG Corp’s titles as the top battle royale money-spinner for the month.
Overall it's thought to have grossed over $445 million to date.
#5: How is Brawl Stars performing on the download and grossing charts for Supercell?
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How is Brawl Stars performing on the download and grossing charts for Supercell? »As one of the biggest mobile game releases of the year, we’ve been keeping track of Brawl Stars’ download and grossing performance on App Annie.
Supercell only launches titles it feels can be market leaders. ‘A billion dollars or bust’, some might say.
On day two of its release, the title hit top spot for game downloads in 65 countries on iOS and 32 on Android.
On the grossing rankings, it hit the top five in 10 countries on the App Store and the top five in just one (Finland) on Google Play. We’ll be updating the article throughout the week.