Noelani “Nani” Lasua (‘29) had no idea what Clash Royale was until May this year. But when she saw a bunch of her classmates playing, she figured she would give it a shot. Four months later, she was already “pretty addicted.”

Nani isn’t alone. The surge in Clash Royale’s popularity is not the result of one simple phenomenon —  it is the result of a combination of gameplay and the skill required, social community with both new and dedicated players, and social trends. 

But first, what is it? Clash Royale is a real-time, online strategy game where you attempt to destroy your opponent’s towers while defending your own by deploying troops, spells, and buildings released in 2016. 

While it has always been well known, its popularity skyrocketed in recent months, making 6 times as much money in August 2025 as in January 2025, according to Clash Royale’s report. 

Additionally, Clash Royale’s popularity is evidenced by Brawl Stars, another game developed by Supercell in 2017. Brawl Stars was the dominant game of 2024 and early 2025, only being replaced by Clash Royale very recently. Dedicated players mention that they just really like the game. For example, Edward Baek (‘28) said, “I feel like it’s a very easy game to play,” adding that if he were ever bored, he “would rather hop on Clash more than hop on Brawl Stars.” 

Julian Bartlett (‘29) also mentioned, “Clash Royale feels more customizable because you have all these different decks and different cards that you can make.” Similarly, Nani says that “when you win, it’s just a great feeling” and that “you just want to keep playing.” This might have to do with the fact that, to progress, you must win games to gain trophies (One game = 30 trophies approximately), but if you lose, you lose 30 trophies, so there is a risk and a reward of playing each game. 

The gameplay is also what brought some former players back; for example, Sami Bitar (‘28) had switched from Brawl Stars, saying that “[he] was just getting frustrated and getting kind of bored with [Brawl Stars]” among other issues he had with the game. He also compares Clash Royale and Brawl Stars, saying it “isn’t as skillful… and you’re on a team a lot of the time, so if your teammates suck, you lose.”

This community relies on both new players and dedicated veterans. These dedicated players often keep their social groups to the game as well. For example, Edward said that his friend, Lachlan Yerbury (‘28), who “is insanely focused and good at Clash Royale… and plays it every single day,” helped Edward stay dedicated to Clash Royale.

To Nani, it is a social activity as well. She described the game as “a bonding moment for me and my friends. So we could have something to talk about.”

Nani suggested that this social element contributed to the game’s increase in popularity as well, saying, “Once I started playing, my friends would be like, ‘What are you playing?’ And then I’d be like, ‘Oh, Clash Royale.’ And they’d be like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ And then I would explain it to them. And then now they also start playing it.”

Even with strong gameplay and an active community, the recent explosion in popularity, having 47.4 million current players, as opposed to just 15.7 million in May of 2025, according to Clash Royale, has mostly to do with social trends. 

Sami Bitar is a prime example. He first started playing when he was in fourth grade, but when asked why he quit last year, he said, “I kind of got bored with the game, a lot of people started to leave the game, and everybody in my clan became inactive. The game kind of became dead, and then I got bored with it too.” During his freshman year, Sami switched to playing Brawl Stars instead, following the trends of his classmates.

While he did give many gameplay-related reasons for his return to Clash Royale, Sami also admitted that “[He] did just follow the trend.”

This idea of a social trend has been mentioned by others as well. Edward talked about being able to predict the trends, saying, “I just knew [the change in trends] was gonna happen, since it was just happening every single time.”

Despite people genuinely having a reason to play Clash Royale right now, many say that these trends are temporary. As Julian said, “Honestly, I feel like Clash Royale’s not gonna be this popular for long, and I think it’s just different trend changes when people go to different games.”