Clash Royale Hits the U.S. App Store

By: Ashton Newton
Staff Writer

The modern App Store has become very predictable. Each week, it gets updated with a fresh batch of Clash of Clans clones and Flappy Bird clones, more than one could count.

Developer Supercell started the action base-building craze with their 2012 release of Clash of Clans. The game is estimated to make $1.5 million per day.

Last month saw the release of Supercell’s Clash Royale, a pocket-sized MOBA based off the characters and world from Clash of Clans. And it’s amazing.

For anyone who doesn’t know, MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, and games like League of Legends and DOTA 2 have taken over the competitive gaming market. Each year, multi-million dollar tournaments are held and professional players from around the world battle.

But with Clash Royale, the idea of the MOBA game is simplified and put in the pockets of the masses. The game pits you against another player and you have to send out troops to destroy the other players towers and castle, the first to lose their castle loses the battle.

Clash Royale instantly became the top grossing and most downloaded app on the App Store upon its release. Today it sits comfortably as the second top-grossing app, with Clash of Clans at number three.

It’s a simple game, yet there is so much room to master it and become more competitive. The game features cards for different troops that you can send out, so over time you can collect them in game and play around with different line-ups. There are 48 cards in total.

The game also has a feature called TV Royale, where you can instantly start watching a game between two players at the highest rank for enjoyment or to see the strategies of others. You can also, just like Clash of Clans, join a clan with your friends and talk, casually battle, and trade cards.

Clash Royale is free to play, but gives you the chance to spend real money on gems and coins to get more or improve your cards.

Clash Royale is out now on the Apple App Store and Android Market.

Contact the author at anewton15@wou.edu