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Supercell credits two key partners in bringing Clash of Clans to Japanese audiences

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We previously told you about how Finnish game developer Supercell teamed up with Japanese game developer GungHo Entertainment for cross promotion of their most popular mobile games, Clash of Clans and Puzzle and Dragons. The collaboration has been especially effective for Supercell’s Clash of Clans, as promotion in Japan’s most popular mobile game , Puzzle & Dragons, has helped it reach the top of Japan’s free iOS app rankings [1]. Just this past week it rose to as high as third on the top grossing app charts as well, which is no small feat, especially in a market as lucrative as Japan. A representative at Supercell explained to us that their team is delighted with the results so far, describing the collaboration as a tremendous one so far. “We have the deepest respect for GungHo” he added. Supercell also worked closely with Japanese media site AppBank to promote its game (see video below), describing that partnership as follows: We have been similarly impressed with their success. They have provided an invaluable service to our Japanese players with detailed tutorials and support. They are simply amazing. It is still early and we have a lot to learn, but both GungHo and…

clash-of-clans-puzzle-dragons-2
Clash of Clans characters featured in Puzzle & Dragons

We previously told you about how Finnish game developer Supercell teamed up with Japanese game developer GungHo Entertainment for cross promotion of their most popular mobile games, Clash of Clans and Puzzle and Dragons. The collaboration has been especially effective for Supercell’s Clash of Clans, as promotion in Japan’s most popular mobile game , Puzzle & Dragons, has helped it reach the top of Japan’s free iOS app rankings [1]. Just this past week it rose to as high as third on the top grossing app charts as well, which is no small feat, especially in a market as lucrative as Japan.

A representative at Supercell explained to us that their team is delighted with the results so far, describing the collaboration as a tremendous one so far. “We have the deepest respect for GungHo” he added.

Supercell also worked closely with Japanese media site AppBank to promote its game (see video below), describing that partnership as follows:

We have been similarly impressed with their success. They have provided an invaluable service to our Japanese players with detailed tutorials and support. They are simply amazing. It is still early and we have a lot to learn, but both GungHo and AppBank are helping us to better understand the market in Japan.

Both partnerships are somewhat unconventional for a Western game developer looking to break into the Japanese market. But it will be interesting to see if more companies take a similar approach moving forward. From GungHo’s point of view, the power to promote a Western game inside P&D represents a pretty big bargaining chip as it looks to expand into Western markets itself.

And indeed P&D has benefited from promotion in Supercell’s Clash of Clans and Hey Day too, briefly breaking into the US top 20 apps overall for a few days in June, and peaking at sixth spot on the top grossing charts on July 14th.


  1. It held the top position in Japan from June 24 to June 26th.  ↩