Supercell Oy is a Finnish mobile game development company based in Helsinki. Founded on 14 May 2010,[5] the company's debut game was the browser game Gunshine.net, and after its release in 2011, Supercell started developing games for mobile devices. Since then, the company has fully released seven mobile games: Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, Squad Busters and mo.co, which are freemium games and have been very successful for the company, with the first two generating revenue of €2 million per day in 2013.[6]
Following its rapid growth, Supercell opened additional offices in Shanghai, San Francisco, and Seoul. In 2016, the company was bought out by Chinese conglomerate Tencent holdings, taking an 81.4% stake in the company valued at €8.4 billion.[7]
Company
Business model
Supercell focuses on the development of free-to-play games that yield profits through in-game microtransactions. The company's objective is to develop successful games that remain popular for years. The focus has not been on revenue, but on the principle "just design something great, something that users love".[8] Game development focuses on "cells" of five to seven people which start with an idea generation and an initial review by CEO Paananen.[8] The team subsequently develops the idea into a game, which the rest of the company's employees get to play-test, followed by play-testing in Canada's App Store; if the reception in Canada is good, the next step is global rollout (App Store).[8] Successful failures are celebrated by employees.[8] One of the games that was cancelled well into development was Battle Buddies, which had also been rated well in the test market, but the number of players was still too small. The final decision to cancel a project is made by the development team themselves.
History
Background and founding
Before Supercell, two of its founders, Mikko Kodisoja and Ilkka Paananen, worked at Sumea, a mobile game company. Kodisoja co-founded Sumea in 1999, and Paananen was hired as the company's CEO in 2000. In 2003, Sumea made a profit of €1.2 million. In the following year, the American Digital Chocolate bought Sumea and made it the company's Finnish headquarters and Paananen the European manager. Kodisoja, the firm's creative director, left the company in 2010, followed soon after by Paananen.[9]
Paananen moved to a venture capital company Lifeline Ventures, but wanted to create a game company where executives would not disturb the work of the game developers. Together, Paananen, Kodisoja, Petri Styrman, Lassi Leppinen, Visa Forstén, and Niko Derome, who had all known each other through work connections, founded Supercell in 2010. The company started its business in the Niittykumpu district of Espoo.[10]
Kodisoja and Paananen invested €250,000 in the company. Tekes, the Finnish funding agency for technology innovation, loaned them a further €400,000 and Lifeline Ventures also invested in Supercell. The following October, Supercell raised €750,000 through seed funding, including from London Venture Partners and Initial Capital.
Games
Marketing
During Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015, Supercell spent $9 million for a 60-second runtime in front of 118.5 million viewers. According to The Guardian, the Clash of Clans advertisement was one of the most popular advertisements of the 61 spots aired on NBC.[84] The commercial, dubbed "Revenge", featured Liam Neeson parodying his character from the Taken film series by seeking revenge in a coffee shop for a random player destroying his village. The commercial has reached a total of 165 million[85] views on the game's official YouTube channel so far,[86] and it was the most watched commercial on YouTube in 2015.[87] Despite the success of the commercial, Supercell has seen only a marginal increase in downloads following the advertisement.[88]
Accolades
In 2012, Supercell was awarded as the best Nordic start-up company[90] and chosen as the Finnish game developer of the year.[91] The following year, Supercell won the Finnish Teknologiakasvattaja 2013 (Technology Educator 2013) contest,[92] and the company was chosen as the software entrepreneur of the year. In 2014, the research and consultancy agency T-Media chose Supercell as Finland's most reputable company in their Luottamus&Maine (Trust&Reputation) report.[93] In 2025, Supercell was dubbed Best Developer at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025.[94]
Further reading
External links
References
- Dean Takahashi. The DeanBeat: Supercell CEO's 10 takeaways from 10 years of mobile games GamesBeat, VentureBeat, 15 May 2020, retrieved 23 January 2021^
- Ilkka Paananen. In for the Forever Game Supercell, 11 February 202, retrieved 10 January 2026^
- Dean Takahashi. Supercell reports 2023 revenues drop 4% to $1.82B while profits dip 8%