How the Supercell Store Helped 5 Games Exceed $1B

5 out of Supercell’s 6 live games have all surpassed $1 billion in revenue -  Clash of Clans even surpassed the $10 billion mark in 2022. And the sixth game, Squad Busters, is looking like it’s on track to join the ranks. 

There are a few reasons for Supercell’s incredible success - most famously their genre disruptor approach to game development. But one we’re most interested in is their direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy - specifically, their web shop. The Supercell store holds the webshops for each of their games, letting players access personalized offers, special discounts, and liveops-related deals. And for Supercell, every purchase is free from the 30% commission fees of the app stores - leading to higher margins and contributing to their immense financial success.

Ahead, we’re taking a deep dive into the Supercell store to uncover how and why they built such a strong D2C channel, including its benefits, the incentives it uses to drive traffic to the shop and encourage return visits, and the types of offers available for boosting engagement, retention, and LTV. By the end, you should have some ideas to inspire your own webshop strategy and for taking full advantage of the benefits this D2C channel can offer.

Benefits of Supercell store

Key features of the Supercell store‍

How Supercell drives traffic to the webshop‍‍

Brawl Stars Supercell store case study

Get inspired

What are the benefits of the Supercell store?

A D2C channel offers studios like Supercell a few major advantages over sticking only to the traditional app stores, like Apple and Google. When the Supercell store launched in 2021, these are the benefits the studio began to enjoy:

Higher in-app purchase margins

Since the Supercell store is a direct channel, it bypasses the 30% commission fees that the app stores take with every in-app purchase. This means Supercell gets to keep more revenue in their pocket for every dollar players spend. And for a company as large as Supercell, these savings can add up to millions of dollars. 

Let’s look at the IAP revenue of Brawl Stars, for example. In 2024, the game earned over $735 million in mobile revenue across both the App Store and Google Play, according to Sensor Tower. Using our fee calculator and assuming Supercell shifts 20% of spend from in-game to the Supercell store, we calculated that Supercell can save over $42 million on app store fees with their webshop.

That boost to the bottom line means Supercell can reinvest this additional revenue into other parts of its operation, like marketing. 

More ways to engage players

There’s a lot you can’t do in native apps but can make a huge impact on engagement.  The web is a much more flexible environment, though, so you can offer these features much more easily - like content hubs, volume-based discounts, and loyalty programs. And they offer new ways for players to engage with your game that extend beyond the gameplay itself, which makes them feel more love and loyalty for your brand - and translates to higher LTV. 

The Supercell store takes advantage of the flexibility of the web with engagement features, like a:

• Stamp card that encourages players to keep purchasing more Passes to unlock a special reward 
• Mission system for completing in-game events to earn Points to redeem on the Supercell Store
• Loyalty program (Supercell ID Rewards) that includes exclusive offers and a community hub with user-generated content, YouTube videos, and social feeds

Increased player spend

A webshop is a channel for your highest spenders - who are so engaged with your game that they're willing to leave the app and head to the web for better offers and experiences. A web shop like the Supercell store addresses their highest-value players with a ton of channel incentives, including exclusive offerers, discounts, and rewards that these users can only get on the web. As as a result, high-LTV players feel like they’re getting a premium experience and end up spending more.

For example, the Supercell store for Clash Royale has a web-exclusive daily offer that rotates every 24 hours. With its limited-time and exclusive nature, players feel a sense of urgency to complete the purchase - and then to keep returning to the store to discover the next day’s offer. Giving your highest-spending players reasons to visit your web shop and continue coming back is the goal of incentives like these - and they go a long way to shift more spend to your shop and get players to spend more.

First-party data

Players can’t access the Supercell store until they log in with their Supercell ID. For example, the storefront for Squad Busters locks all offers, and instead highlights the different value propositions of the webshop, like the exclusive deals and coins bonus with every purchase. 

By requiring players to sign in to access the web store, Supercell gets access to their account data and can personalize their offers. And this account data includes valuable first-party information, like email addresses and in-game behavior (e.g. buying frequency). You can’t get this first-party data through the app stores, so this is a big advantage of a D2C channel. For example, using player emails you can run retargeting and email marketing campaigns, and build Lookalike audiences on Facebook - all marketing strategies that are pretty much impossible in a post-IDFA environment because of the lack of access to in-game user data.

What are the key features of the Supercell store?

There’s a Supercell store for each of the studio’s games. And while these storefronts hold offers tailored to each title’s unique gameplay (we’ll get into this later), there are also high-level features that these webshops have in common that you can use as inspiration for your own web store:

Web-exclusive, limited-time offers

The Supercell stores for Clash of Clans and Clash Royale use Store Specials at the top of the storefront to highlight high-value and exclusive offers that are personalized to the individual player based on “the progress and activity of the game account attached to your Supercell ID”. 

An incentive like this is so effective because of:

• Exclusive offers: Players have access to offers that exist exclusively on the Supercell store. This builds the value of the shop so players shift their spend from in-game to the web
• Limited-time offers: These offers are valid for a limited time (e.g. 24 hours) and regularly rotate out. With this time constraint, Supercell adds a sense of urgency to increase purchases while giving players another reason to return to the shop to check out the next offer 
• Front and center: Specials are presented at the top of the web shop page, a design strategy that immediately showcases the value of the Supercell store and puts front and center the deal that players are most likely to be interested in
• Personalization: Store Specials are personalized to the player based on the data from their Supercell ID. So players see offers that they want most at the most relevant time, which increases conversions

Bonus points, items, and coins

Across every Supercell store, players earn bonus currency or items - along with Supercell ID Rewards points in most cases, which we’ll get into next. Brawl Stars, for example, gives players different items based on their purchase, whether that’s 300 extra Bling with a purchase of 3000, or 10% instant progress with the purchase of a Brawl Pass.

The Supercell store for Hay Day, meanwhile, uses bonus currency as their primary incentive for purchasing. Every resource pack on the Hay Day web shop offers players an additional 10% - so a bag of 130 diamonds gets a bonus of 13 diamonds, for example, and a box of 570 diamonds earns a bonus of 57.

Bonuses like these are a reason for players to head to the web shop, instead of purchasing these items in-game. While all of these items are available also in-game, players are incentivized to head to the web to get more bang for their buck. 

Supercell ID rewards program

Supercell launched their Supercell ID Rewards program in December 2024 as a way to improve the player experience and deepen engagement with the IP.

“We’re always exploring new ways to improve our player experience, eagerly listening to feedback and trying out new things.” - Supercell

‍ID Rewards is Supercell’s loyalty program, which gives players access to exclusive rewards, content, and community features for each game. Whenever players make a purchase on the Supercell store, they earn ID Rewards Points that they can redeem for valuable prizes on the Rewards store. To make the program even more accessible and appealing, players can earn ID Rewards Points in one game and redeem them for rewards in any other Supercell game. 

For example, if a player purchases a new character Ollie for Brawl Stars in the Supercell Store, they earn 600 ID Rewards Points. Then in the Supercell ID Rewards store, the player can redeem those 600 points for a prize in any game, like rare wild cards for Clash Royale.

Tying in the ID Rewards program to the Supercell store gives players another reason to use the web shop and increase their spend. It also fosters loyalty, deeper engagement, and higher retention. The program includes features like Missions for players to complete in-app for each game to earn ID Rewards Points. And there’s community content for each title, too, like user-generated content from Supercell Makers and videos from the games’ YouTube channels. This type of content represents opportunities for players to engage with Supercell’s IP in ways that extend beyond the gameplay itself.

How does Supercell drive traffic to the webshop?

All of the offers on the Supercell store are compelling reasons for players to start shifting their spend from in-game to the web. But how do players even know about the Supercell store and its value? That’s where UA strategies for driving traffic to the web shop - and continuing to encourage players to return by highlighting new incentives - come in handy. 

And Supercell has run these so effectively that organic traffic to the Supercell store for all of their games has increased since launch in mid-2024. For example, average organic traffic to the Brawl Stars store increased 112% in 6 months, from almost 44,000 visits in July 2024 to over 93,600 by December 2024.

Social media

Supercell has social media accounts including Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for each of its games. Here, they’re able to create content that spotlights the Supercell store and the value that players can get on the web.

For example, the YouTube channel for Brawl Stars announces major sales events on the Supercell store, like this one for Black Friday. In the video, they not only call out and link to the webshop, but also highlight the extra 10% bonus that players get when they shop on the web. Beyond that, the ad is so effective because of its irreverent and wacky nature. It feels authentic and goofy, which clearly resonates with the audience - it has over 129K likes and comments include things like “I don't know what I just watched but I loved it, take my money now”:

Also, Clash of Clans publishes posts on their Facebook profile about free rewards players can claim in the Supercell store. Keeping these posts short, sweet, and to the point about the free rewards puts the emphasis on the value of the webshop and lets players know exactly what to expect. And they’re reminded of the free offer not just in the caption, but also in the creative.

Squad Busters uses their Discord to offer giveaways to players that they can only redeem on the Supercell Store with their Supercell ID. This channel is for the more engaged and hardcore players, so giveaways here can have more rules and explanation - and the prize can be higher, too. 

Paid advertising

Beyond the organic social media that Supercell runs for each of its games, it also puts budget behind paid ads directing to the Supercell store. For Clash of Clans, for example, they advertise the Supercell store - sometimes in a more generic way (e.g. “Earn bonuses at the Clash of Clans store”) and other times relating to a special, limited-time event (e.g. “Reap the rewards with the Gold Pass Double Points offer, live from 29th to the 31st of January!”). For all of their ads, they always link to the webshop, keep the copy short and clear, and use a video creative that also highlights the core message and offer.

Creator partners

Supercell has official partnerships with creators and are also often featured in unsponsored creator content about the Supercell store. Many of these content creators have Creator Codes that players can use in the web shop to show their support for favorite Supercell creators - then creators earn a portion of the sale whenever players use their code during checkout.

For example, popular YouTube gaming influencer Orange Juice Gaming (>3.5M subscribers) published a video talking about the bonuses available on the Supercell store and how to use each game’s webshop. Included in the video is his Creator Code, "OJ", that his followers can use to show their support and help Orange Juice Gaming earn an income:

‍Spike (306K subscribers) is another example of a Supercell creator leveraging their engaged community to share videos about the Supercell Store. They released a simple yet effective video that gave an overview of the Supercell store for Brawl Stars, including the offers available and how to redeem them. Like Orange Juice Gaming, they also share their Creator Code - "carnage" - so their community can continue to support them: 

And smaller-scale creators, like Clash of Clans-focused JacobsClash (9.3K subscribers), publish their own videos about how to use the Supercell store and what deals await.

Email marketing

With access to players’ emails from their Supercell ID accounts, Supercell runs email marketing campaigns that direct users to the Supercell store. This is a particularly effective strategy for liveops events, where the email announcing a special event, new Brawler, etc. also highlights relevant offers on the shop.

Links and features on the Supercell website 

Supercell brings attention to the Supercell store directly from their main website. On every page, there’s a main navigation bar at the top that includes a large icon for the store.

Supercell also uses on-site content to highlight the webshop. For example, they publish news features like this announcement about Supercell expanding the Supercell store so there’s a dedicated shop for each game.

Case study: Brawl Stars web store

Now that we’ve covered the general features of the Supercell store, let’s take a deeper dive into the Brawl Stars webshop. 

Familiar UI and offers

All of the products in the Supercell store for Brawl Stores appear the same on the web as they do in the game. Players see their favorite offers from in-game, with the same branding, font, and colors that help them remain immersed in the Brawl Stars IP even as they leave the app environment. 

This results in an easy-to-understand and seamless experience for users as they move from in-game to the web shop. This kind of experience can help improve early-day webshop performance metrics, like bounce rate and session length.

Bonuses with each purchase

Players earn two types of bonuses with each purchase on the Brawl Stars Supercell store: a bonus of the relevant currency or resource, and ID Rewards points. Tailoring the bonus so it’s relevant to the offer increases the perceived value for the players. For example, when they purchase Bling, they get extra Bling - and when they purchase Gems, they get bonus Gems.

With bonus currency and resources, players have a reason to shift their spend from in-game to the shop. And for Supercell, this spend is free from the 30% app store fees so they get to enjoy the higher margins.

The additional bonus of ID Rewards points helps with shifting and increasing player spend, too. It incentivizes players to use the web shop because the ID Rewards Points are exclusive to the Supercell Store.

To advertise these bonuses and highlight their value to players, Supercell includes callouts on the products on the main navigation of the Brawl Stars store, within each product page, and at checkout.

Ecommerce UX

Supercell does a great job bringing together best practices in ecommerce and game design principles to make their webshop feel like a seamless shopping experience. In particular, introducing ecommerce features like a shopping cart and product pages to the Supercell store helps increase spend and retention. 

Shopping cart

The cart lets players add multiple products and purchase more than one at a time, which is helpful for:

• Increasing average order value and overall revenue: Players can more easily complete bulk purchases in one click, rather than having to make many, separate purchases. Since it’s easier and faster to add multiple products to their cart and pay for it all in one, players are more likely to spend more
• Boosting retention and spend: In the cart, Supercell shows players the bonuses they receive with their purchase, emphasizing the value of the Supercell store so users both increase their spend and continue returning to the shop

Product pages

The product pages give players more information about the product before they buy. In the Brawl Stars in-game shop, players need to press another button next to the item to get a full description. 

But on the web, product pages work just like any other ecommerce experience users are familiar with, like tapping a sneaker on the Nike site. These pages are an especially useful feature for a product like the Brawl Pass Plus, which includes a ton of bonuses, perks, and rewards.[Brawl Pass plus browsing video]Providing a place to elaborate on all of the benefits of a product like this can:

• Boost conversions and overall revenue: The Supercell store builds value as players read more about the product and see a list of everything they’re getting (in fact, they need to keep scrolling because the list in the Brawl Pass Plus is so long!). This perceived value then translates into conversions - purchases - that contribute to more revenue overall
• Encourage players to return to the shop and shift spend: Like the cart, a product page is a space for highlighting the exclusive bonuses that players get by shopping on the web, rather than in-game. In the case of the Brawl Pass Plus, it’s an instant 30% progress bonus and 600 ID Rewards points - both very appealing incentives that users can only get on the Supercell Store

Get inspired by the Supercell store

The Supercell store is an excellent example of a D2C strategy at its finest. With their webshops, Supercell is able to directly engage with their loyal community of millions of players to give them an enhanced experience outside of gameplay - and boost retention and engagement as a result. And they’re also earning revenue that’s free of the 30% commission fees of the app stores, getting access to valuable first-party player data, and increasing player LTV.Now it’s your turn: build a D2C channel that gives your players a premium experience while letting you take advantage of all the benefits a direct channel like this offers. Talk to us at Stash about building a custom webshop together that’s tailored to your unique gameplay and players.