For the longest time, Clash Royale has been the mobile game that has gathered the most viewers on YouTube. However, as we reported, its numbers have been dwindling over the last one to two years. Therefore it was only a matter of time that a new mobile game would rise to the top and snatch Clash Royale’s crown. “Luckily” for Supercell, the makers of Clash Royale, the next game on the mobile game throne is also of their making: Brawl Stars.
Please note that we put the word luckily in quotes, as the success story of Brawl Stars had nothing to do with luck whatsoever (as the remainder of the article will show). If you follow mobile game development, the Brawl Stars buzz has surely made its way to you. Although in case you haven’t heard, Brawl Stars is the newest blockbuster of Supercell, the well-recognized mobile developer and publisher also responsible for Clash Royale, Boom Beach and Clash of Clans.
Released globally in December of 2018, Brawl Stars has had an interesting path to reach the viral popularity it has now. Having now overtaken other Supercell games as being the most successful mobile game on YouTube, we wanted to take a closer look at just how that happened and what it took to get there. For this deep dive, we partnered with our friends at Paladin, who are as data obsessed as we are and are wizards when it comes to aggregating and dissecting data on YouTube and other platforms.
The below chart tells an interesting story of Brawl Stars’ rise to fame. Read on to learn how it got there and what hurdles Brawl Stars had to overcome in order to dethrone Clash Royale as the most popular mobile game on YouTube.
A Brief History of Mobile Gaming on YouTube
Mobile games are widely covered on YouTube and make for high quality, entertaining content.
Why is that you ask?
First off, mobile gaming is inherently more accessible due to the high mobile phone market penetration across the world. Second, with this high market penetration, that means the potential user base for any particular game is magnified. And third, people are hyper-connected to one another so interacting with one another through a mobile game is just another avenue in which people communicate and seek entertainment.
With this in mind, it is no wonder that multiplayer mobile gaming has taken off on YouTube. Fortunately for Supercell, their games have received international attention due to their high entertainment quality and influencer support which has resulted in more coverage on YouTube in comparison to any other game.
Mobile gaming on YouTube really took off when Clash of Clans was released in 2012. This freemium mobile game, which was originally released as a single-player game, was met with positive reception so much so that in 2015 Clash of Clans reached 1st place on the top-grossing list. As the revenue would suggest, Clash of Clans content was all over YouTube to which macro and micro-influencers contributed greatly.
Following the Clash of Clans fad, came Clash Royale’s rise on YouTube and now Brawl Stars.
With its global launch Brawl Stars begun its’ YouTube takeover. The extent to which is yet to be fully seen as it’s only been 3-months since release, but based on our current data it will surely be as monumental as its predecessors.
Brawl Stars is the most popular mobile game on YouTube
Brawl Stars is Supercell’s first venture out of the strategy genre into the team-based, multiplayer world. To commemorate the new venture, Supercell hosted an eSports style tournament garnering vast media and influencer attention. Although as the nearly 2-year long soft launch dragged on, many critics began to recognize design shortcomings – leading to the skepticism of its eventual release and subsequent YouTube coverage stagnating and in some months even declining.
Fortunately, Supercell was able to combat the decreasing coverage of Brawl Stars by punctuating the soft launch with 3 different software updates as well as releases into new regions. Most notably, when the soft release was extended to Android users YouTube coverage increased by 40% in the first month after Android owners were able to join in on the fun.
Upon the announcement in November 2018 that Brawl Stars would be released globally, there was another surge of coverage on YouTube. And now that Brawl Stars has been released globally, Clash of Clans and Clash Royale loyalists have refocused their content towards Brawl Starts – to date, more than 7,000 YouTube channels have published Brawl Star related content.
Influencers Focusing on Brawl Stars
Through paid as well as organic coverage, gaming influencers have the ability to drive attention as well as establish a community for the different games that they play. This ability is especially helpful to gaming brands upon launch and one that Brawl Stars has clearly benefited from.
Many influencers who were once focused on Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Pokemon GO as well as other mobile games have begun to dedicate a majority of their content to Brawl Stars. From macro to micro, influencers are jumping on the Brawl Stars bandwagon – here are a two of examples top mobile gamers whose love of Brawl Stars is reflected in the content that they publish.
Chief Pat, one of the most popular mobile gamers on YouTube, previously focused on other Supercell games like Clash of Clans and Clash Royale though has since switched over to Brawl Stars. He has published more than 80 Brawl Stars videos since November 2018.
Puuki, a popular German mobile gamer who once largely focused on Pokemon Go, has published more than 80 Brawl Stars related videos since December 2018.
Chief Pat and Puuki aren’t the only mobile gaming influencers who are shifting their focus to Brawl Stars. Other leading mobile gamers play a good deal of Brawl Stars as well and more influencers are sure to follow suit thus solidifying the fact that Brawl Stars is the most popular game on YouTube.
So, with Brawl Stars receiving the most attention, how can other mobile games make themselves known?
Fortunately for our clients, we’ve created and begun executing on proven strategies to make a splash on YouTube. Reach out to contact@gameinfluencer.com to begin your own carefully crafted and strategic campaign.
