It’s extraordinary that a game that first boomed nine years ago makes a comeback regaining its old fans as well as new ones. Clash Royale is a Supercell mobile game that was released in March 2016. In the first year of being released, the game gained a prominent fan base of 45 million active users at the peak of its first popular surge. The game maintained popularity after its release but fell to all-time low in early 2021 with an active user count of around 1 million.
Flash forward to 2025, at the beginning of the year, the Clash Royale active user count was around 10.8 million. In September of 2025, that number increased to 49.4 million, a 357% increase from the beginning of the year, bringing record-breaking revenue.
Why the sudden surge in popularity? There are a few reasons the nostalgic game has made an incredible return.
New GOOD updates: Historically, the game has made updates purely to increase company profit, decreasing fun for the users. This is how the game lost its fanbase in the first place. As new and bad updates continued to come out, fans lost interest in the game, and other Supercell games like Brawl Stars and Clash of Clans rose to the top. Though as of recently, Supercell has upgraded the game to appeal to users by bringing back beloved characters and events, facilitating its massive resurgence.
Media presence: New memes have blown up about the game, which increased its user fanbase. Youtubers like Jinxy, Molt, and OJ Gaming have started producing new content about the nostalgic game. Memes about the game have also appeared on short media platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, developing a new-aged culture around the game.
“I saw some of my favorite TikTokers playing it again, and it made me want to re-download it,” senior Nick Marzka, who re-downloaded the game a couple of months ago after not playing for years, said.
Strategic: As other Supercell games become more complicated, fans revert back to games that are more laid back, yet strategic. Players can improve by balancing their decks, utilizing players, purposefully fighting opponents offensively and defensively, and placing troops.
“It’s definitely better than doom scrolling, you can at least use your brain to win,” senior Abby Jones said on being a new user. “At first I thought it was really stupid, but it wasn’t really what I expected.”
Social aspect: Another big reason why the game has become so popular again is its social aspect. In the game, players can play with friends, adding to the number of new fans joining.
“I continue to play because my friends play it. It’s fun to compete with them and try to get the most trophies,” junior Anthony Olsson said, who downloaded the game around a year ago.
The question is: will the popularity last? The game has lost 2 million users since its major surge in September. It may as well be a quick-burning flame, though the future is never certain, as trends are unpredictable.
