Squad Busters: Why a 50% Revenue Drop in a Month Is Not Yet a Sentence. Analysis by AppMagic

Experts from AppMagic discussed the successful and not-so-successful decisions made by Supercell in launching Squad Busters. Here's the Russian version of the analysis.

By Alexandra Dedyukhina and Andrey Zubov

It's been over a month since the global launch of Squad Busters, the first Supercell game in six years to reach a global audience. But that's not the only important thing. For almost the first time in its history, the Finnish developer released a game that spent less than a month in soft launch. The internet is buzzing with discussions about the possible reasons for this decision, but we won't delve into speculations. Nonetheless, the decision to skip a full soft launch likely affected how controversial the game ultimately turned out to be.

Initially, the release of Squad Busters was a real celebration for our team! It's not every day that we receive a new game from such a legendary studio, bringing together characters from all their previous hits.

The initial sessions were incredibly curious and engaging. As players, we were captivated and couldn't pull away. As analysts, we were thrilled to encounter innovative solutions - like those borrowed from the match-3 genre.

However, the longer we played, the more we encountered questionable decisions and areas that could be improved. This caused our initial excitement to wane. A few weeks in, some of our team members started launching Squad Busters less often, while others returned to the cozy and familiar world of Brawl Stars.

And judging by download trends, it wasn't just us. Audience engagement declined within the first few weeks.

Daily metrics of Squad Busters

What happened? Why did the game's metrics drop so sharply?

To answer these questions, we did what we love most — play and analyze.

Ultimately, we discovered:

• why this game might become a cornerstone of Supercell's new strategy;
• how it manages to attract both casual and mid-core players;
• which LiveOps decisions make the game engaging and whether they can save it;
• which features from previous Supercell games work in Squad Busters and which do not;
• how the lack of full social features affects the game;
• why Squad Busters' reward and progression system tires players.

Yes, as of the writing of this article, the game's metrics do not provide a clear picture of its future. However, its innovative nature and the launch context provide plenty of material for study and learning, which is the main goal of this analysis. So, let's dive into the most interesting aspects!

Squad Busters: Supercell Brings Casual to New Levels in Gaming

It's time to understand: what is Squad Busters? Let's highlight the key points:

• The game is an isometric action game combining elements of MOBA, battle royale, and roguelike, where players form squads of characters;
• The main gameplay focuses on collecting and upgrading these characters for participation in PvPvE battles;
• Like other Supercell products, this game targets both casual and mid-core players.

Rather than focusing on describing gameplay, let's focus on the key elements of the project. But first, let's note that the traditional formula Supercell follows when working on games is to take proven mechanics and simplify them, thereby making them accessible to a wide audience. Squad Busters is no exception.

Core Gameplay: A Mix of Tactics and Chaos

The core gameplay loop of this new game is inspired by a previously canceled Supercell project called Floodrush: there's even a hint about it in a post about its shutdown. Squad Busters inherited its core gameplay, but with more dynamics, casualness, and chaos.

Comparison of Floodrush and Squad Busters

Comment from App2Top: If you don't consider the additional mechanics and focus only on the action component, the controls, and overall interface work, you'll notice that Squad Busters also borrowed a lot from another canceled project by the studio — Clash Heroes.

One of the best examples of Supercell's innovative approach is how the project combines elements of MOBA and battle royale.

The traditional MOBA session structure (farming => battles => endgame) in Squad Busters is reduced to two phases (farming => endgame). This significantly reduces the match duration, which can be as long as 20-40 minutes in MOBA titles. In Squad Busters, each match lasts only four minutes.

Instead of the traditional one-on-one final battle typical of battle royales, in Squad Busters' endgame, up to ten players can face each other simultaneously. As a result, the final minutes of most matches turn into chaotic fun: a cacophony of sound effects, visual commotion of players, PvE mobs, and resources dropping from everywhere. This creates an atmosphere reminiscent of popular social party games like Stumble Guys and Eggy Party, which is yet another step towards appealing to casual players.

The Power of Randomness: How to Engage as Many Different Players as Possible

Progression within matches is tied to a "choose one of three" mechanic borrowed from roguelike games like Archero and Survivor.io. Upon collecting the required amount and activating a chest, the player gets to choose one of three random characters to strengthen their squad.

Comparison of the "choose one of three" mechanic: Archero, Survivor.io, Squad Busters

Another element adding randomness is the match modifiers mechanic inherited from Brawl Stars. These modifiers introduce unique features to each match. For example, gems might drop more frequently, or ghostly kings might roam the map and can be recruited to your side. Typically, each match showcases a combination of several modifiers. As the player progresses, the number of available modifiers increases, as does the variety of combinations.

Increasing number of combinations as the player progresses

Along with roguelike elements, modifiers create unique scenarios for each match. This provides players with a diverse and engaging experience, adding strategic depth. The balance between randomness and skill encourages players to keep playing.

Two Pillars of Monetization: Winning Streaks and Consumables

When analyzing monetization, there is clear influence from the match-3 genre.

The clearest example is how the game leverages FOMO (fear of missing out) with the winning streak mechanic. Let's delve a bit deeper into this mechanic.

The game rewards victories with loot boxes. However, unlocking them is tied with a unique mechanic. Depending on several conditions described below, opening a chest requires a certain number of taps. The more taps required, the higher the chance of valuable loot (more hero "cards" or rarer heroes).

Now about the conditions.

Here, Supercell made one of its best decisions: the required number of taps depends not only on your placement in a match but also on the number of consecutive wins.

Additional taps on chests for a winning streak

In other words, the number of successful consecutive matches, which can be spread over multiple sessions, directly affects the reward.

The learning curve for the winning streak is intelligently designed: in initial matches against bots, maintaining a winning streak is easy, helping the player get accustomed to the benefits before competing against real players.

When a player first faces the risk of losing their winning streak, they’re already quite invested, making the rejection of another win particularly painful. Conveniently, Squad Busters offers the opportunity to extend your winning streak with in-game currency!

Such an approach is common in match-3 games, where after a loss, you're shown all the benefits you lose if you break your streak and are offered extra moves to extend it. Honestly, none of us could resist this temptation, spending at least once: this feature works exceptionally well.

Comparison between Hay Day Pop and Squad Busters

Another mechanic borrowed from match-3 games is the introduction of consumables, which function as pay-to-win elements that can drastically change the outcome of the game.

Comparison between Hay Day Pop and Squad Busters

For instance, a player might use a consumable key to instantly summon an enhanced character, which normally requires luck and considerable time to merge three identical regular characters. Crate tickets, given as rewards after a match, also function as consumables, requiring players to spend in-game currency to ensure further progression.

The introduction of more consumables significantly boosts potential spending. In Clash of Clans, Supercell's most successful game, units can be destroyed in battle, forcing players to spend either time or money on training new troops. Unlike cosmetics and skins, consumables can theoretically be purchased infinitely as long as players continue to use them, which is one reason why match-3 economies are so effective.

Offers appear when consumables run out

In concluding our discussion on consumables, let's highlight the key decision that makes the entire system function. Monetization is built around a single currency. A unified transaction entity is more typical in casual games, as it simplifies players’ interactions with in-game offers.

It's particularly interesting to see how Supercell balances its new economy. For example, in the first update, instead of selling three crate tickets for 6,000 gold coins in the shop, players are now offered five tickets for 10,000 coins. Evidently, there was demand for such purchases, allowing developers to make even bolder offers to their audience.

At the end of this chapter, we must note that the experience gained from developing the canceled match-3 Hay Day Pop has certainly come in handy!

A Big Step Towards the Casual Audience

It's crucial to highlight several steps that the game took to attract casual players:

1. Quick matchmaking and short sessions: Matches are found quickly and last only four minutes. This allows for gaming during brief breaks or on the go, appealing to casual players.
2. Unlimited number of matches: The game allows unlimited playing. Though reward tickets might run out, you can continue playing without receiving these rewards. This feature lets players keep completing tasks even when they run out of tickets and appeals to more hardcore players who love to play extensively.
3. Customizable PvE/PvP balance: Squad Busters offers a unique mix of PvE and PvP, allowing players to jump into a PvP session almost immediately or avoid it throughout the entire match. Mobs and the map itself provide enough gems for a win without engaging in battles.
4. Accessible victory conditions: In Squad Busters matches, the prize-winning spots aren't just one or three but as many as five out of ten (reducing the error cost significantly). Thanks to this, the game provides a much more positive experience than other similar titles. This approach is again primarily targeted at casual players, offering high rewards to a greater number of players and providing gratification.
5. Customizable monetization: An interesting aspect is the ability to disable personalization, including the removal of trigger offers entirely. Admittedly, this decision surprised us, and we'll watch with immense interest to see how this feature fares in the game. Maybe, based on research from their previous games, Supercell identified a significant segment of players who are annoyed by an abundance of such offers and an oversaturated shop. If this monetization setting proves successful, it might set a new trend in personalization settings for certain genres.

Recording from May 31, 2024, Canadian account

Key Takeaways:

1. The game targets a casual audience more than any other Supercell games: Squad Busters offers quick matchmaking, short sessions, and an element of randomness, making it very accessible and engaging for casual players.
2. The game incorporates numerous practices from the match-3 genre: It uses FOMO-inducing mechanics and well-designed consumables, borrowing match-3 mechanics to boost engagement and monetization.
3. Consumables can become a major revenue source: Consumables act as significant pay-to-win elements, driving in-game purchases and greatly contributing to the game's monetization strategy.

Squad Busters: Release Issues

As with any new game, Squad Busters has its shortcomings. The Supercell team will likely address many of these issues in upcoming updates. However, we believe it's essential to highlight these aspects, as learning from mistakes can be as valuable as learning from successes.

Uneven Progress and Hard-to-Reach Rewards

Based on our internal observations and feedback from various players, there are several stages where the likelihood of a player quitting is particularly high.

The first noticeable drop occurs around the 7th level of the Squad Journey (approximately 10-12 matches in) and continues until the 15th level.

Progression slowdown after five matches played

By this point, the player has spent about an hour in the game; new features have stopped appearing; there are no mini-LiveOps; full monetization isn't yet available. The player has access to only one arena and a few modifiers, and they have to endure a long grind before reaching a new phase that brings innovations.

Around this time, most 1-star characters upgrade to 2-star characters. This process is quick: you only need to gather 10 units of the same type for this upgrade. However, to upgrade to a 3-star character, you need to collect 100 units, which requires significant gameplay time. As a result, character progress significantly slows down — and for an extended period.

Another drop occurs when the player starts collecting their first 3-star characters (between the 3rd and 4th arenas). While acquiring an upgrade gives a sense of progress, what's next remains unclear. At the time of writing, players needed to collect 1000 1-star units to achieve a 4-star character.

The game's problem is that there's no way to earn 2- or 3-star characters as rewards. To fully upgrade each hero, a player must gather a thousand copies — which is an extremely prolonged process.

Currently, you can't upgrade 4-star characters, so we expect the developers to introduce ways to accelerate progression or add other verticals that provide a sense of progression without disrupting the main character enhancement system.

In our view, the biggest drop-off might occur in the later stages when players approach the ranked mode. The developers clearly don't want to provide access to ranked matches from the start, and they are right. In competitive games, ranked matches are a key goal mid-and endgame, forming the basis for long-term retention. However, in Squad Busters, the ranked league starts surprisingly late: at the very end of Squad Journey — at the 90th level.

Player progression and timeline of unlocking features

We are ready to assume that Supercell doesn't rely too much on casual players reaching this stage — instead, they foresee a constant influx of "newbies" and "leavers." Meanwhile, mid-core players will persevere, reaching the ranked league, ensuring long-term retention.

However, we fear the developers might have gone too far: Even those of us who consider ourselves mid-core players found it challenging to reach the 90th step. Some didn't even make it...

In Brawl Stars, there's a clear trend toward simplifying game accessibility. For instance, the hardcore Power League was replaced by a more player-friendly Ranked League, and access to social features is now unlocked earlier in the game. Check it out for yourself!

What can be done to fix it? Consider moving ranked matches to an earlier stage, based on player churn data.

If there is a strong reason to delay introducing ranked matches to a later stage, consider compromise solutions: for example, offer players a simplified version of ranked matches earlier, to teach them the basics before reaching the full-fledged ranked mode.

Underdeveloped Social Mechanics

There are two key aspects of social interaction:

1. Finding friends.
2. Participating in activities together.

Squad Busters lags in both directions.

Firstly, the game doesn't have an in-game friend search feature. In Brawl Stars, for example, you can send invites to players you just played with or join a clan to find new friends. In Squad Busters, the only way to add someone to your friend list is to send a direct invitation directly from the game (via QR code or a direct link).

Secondly, the absence of clans limits opportunities for collective rewards and benefits from mutual activity. The only immediate example that comes to mind is the Piñata quest, which we'll discuss later. As far as gameplay, Squad Busters lacks modes for co-op play. For instance, Brawl Stars has modes that fit well for cooperation, like Duo Battle Royale or Brawl Ball.

Moreover, the rule that five players become winners in each bout led to exploitation. Player groups started systematically knocking out opponents in matches. Some players, however, subsequently stated that matchmaking resolves this issue by creating appropriate "group vs. group" lobbies. Nonetheless, it should be emphasized once again that Squad Busters’ social functions are far from perfect.

Recording from June 25, 2024, American account

How to fix it? Allow players to team up, create clans, and make new friends at the early stages of the game. For social players, this will be a major advantage, while solo players won't find it burdensome.

We're confident that clans will eventually be added to Squad Busters, especially considering they already exist in other Supercell games.

Clans would allow players to form teams with clan members, increasing the use of social features (thereby boosting engagement and retention) and reducing the impact of abuses, as team-building would cease to be exclusive for those with real friends in the game.

As for the existing social toolkit. Some might argue that encouraging players to invite friends right after launching the game is a good strategy to boost downloads. However, we believe that introducing more social interaction with the first update would have been a much smarter move.

UX/UI Conflict with Gameplay

From an overall design perspective, the game is classic Supercell in all its glory: a signature style with polished graphics, intuitive controls, and a user-friendly interface. However, some solutions directly affect gameplay and still require significant testing and refinement.

For instance, the game's tactical depth suffers from the lack of clear unit indications. During fast-paced and chaotic battles, it can be challenging to determine who is in your squad and who is with the enemy, which is critical for decision-making.

A squad of three or more characters blends into a single visual blur. In large battles, it feels like you have no control, and the outcome depends entirely on luck rather than strategy and skills. This is disappointing, given the game's significant strategic and tactical potential.

The first patch has already brought some UX/UI improvements, including adding an outline to display the squad's current target. Nonetheless, we believe Supercell still has much work to do in improving this area.

The game's strategic potential is undermined by how poorly it's communicated to players. For example, as characters evolve through meta-merging, gaining new functions, the game fails to showcase or explain these changes. Comparing the experience of upgrading characters in Brawl Stars and Squad Busters, we see the following: In the former, improvements are clearly shown, whereas, in the latter, players simply receive an animation of merging and vague congratulations.

The merging screen completely obscures the character profile screen. We find it inefficient to allocate the entire screen to a non-interactive element where the only thing you can press is, essentially, the merge button. All vital information and stats are hidden within the "Details" tab, which players can easily overlook.

Meanwhile, these "details" contain some of the most crucial information about characters, including their innate abilities, some of which aren't obvious. For example, the Boar Rider travels faster across grass than others, while the Barbarian King boosts the attack damage of adjacent fighters.

Character profiles in Squad Busters and Brawl Stars

How to fix it? Don't rely on players learning from their mistakes. Provide maximum support and present important information clearly and directly. For example, replacing the merging animation in Squad Busters with one that highlights the changes and upgrades obtained by enhancing the character could be more effective. Additionally, always display a character's innate abilities in their profile to ensure clarity and help players make informed decisions.

From the App2Top Editorial: Overall, the game suffers from hiding important statistics from players. Figuring out hero movement speed, damage per second, and other attributes is impossible. The game only provides information on character strength and health.

Cosmetics: Finally!

At launch, the game offered no character skins — only decorations for the lobby, and these were rather dull: they were small and could only be placed in specific spots. So it's no surprise that many eagerly awaited the return of skins, which were available during the game's beta testing... and they're finally here!

New skins are sold individually and boost pass sales, being one of the key rewards in the pass. Unlike in Brawl Stars, the game doesn't introduce a separate currency for skins, adhering to the aforementioned single currency formula, and we support this decision.

Squad Busters: Beta (top) and Release (bottom) versions

However, there's an issue with skins in Squad Busters.

It stems from the previously noted poor readability of battles. Unlike games where players fight alone or with a small squad of three to five characters, in Squad Busters matches, more than a dozen chibi-characters can be on-screen under the player's command simultaneously. And if moving around still somewhat allows keeping track of who's in the squad, any battle turns into a visual mess, where you can only tell by sound whether you're losing characters or if the opponent is.

In this chaos, identifying your character or assessing the appearance of others becomes extremely difficult, diminishing the overall value of skins.

Moreover, the mere presence of skins only adds to the battle chaos.

How to fix it? Provide players with more opportunities for self-expression. For example, a larger display of squad characters in the post-match stats could be advantageous. Regarding battle readability, ensure that despite their uniqueness and visual appeal, skins do not compromise gameplay functionality. It's crucial that core game elements remain clear and distinguishable.

Key Takeaways

1. Lack of Progress: Noticeable drop-off between worlds and character upgrade stages. Players frequently face a prolonged grind for rare rewards.
2. Late Introduction of Ranked Mode: The ranked league appears in the game too late (at the 90th stage), making it challenging for mid-core players, who lose motivation and interest long before reaching it.
3. Underdeveloped Social Features: The game lacks comprehensive social interaction mechanics, such as clans and in-game friend invitations, reducing opportunities for cooperative play.
4. Visual Issues with UX and Cosmetics: Poor visibility and unclear visualization of units during chaotic battles hinder the strategic process, and character skins are hard to distinguish, diminishing their value and affecting gameplay readability.

LiveOps: Full Speed Ahead from the Start

We believe that many problems mentioned in this material will be resolved in one way or another, with LiveOps playing a key role. From the very launch of Squad Busters, the game team took operations seriously, drawing on the best practices of their previous games and industry standards.

We assume that the decision to move to full-fledged LiveOps so early in the cycle is due to Supercell's strong belief in the project. Events and updates artificially boost metrics, even if the core gameplay doesn't meet expectations, indicating developers are willing to go all out.

We see a rather dense event schedule for a game launched just a few weeks ago.

Event Schedule in Squad Busters

The game has a well-balanced calendar. It shows clear division between short regular, seasonal, and unique events. These events introduce no new gameplay but directly affect matches. It's an excellent decision for a competitive game aiming to keep players engaged in core gameplay. Moreover, such a structure provides players with daily variety and long-term goals, positively impacting the amount of time they spend in-game and helping with retention.

Again, developers borrowed many LiveOps solutions from their previous games, especially from Brawl Stars:

• Pre-registration event — a replica of a milestone event, it focuses players' attention on specific game aspects and encourages them to explore new features;
• Pre-registration reward, offered as free shop offers, boosts player loyalty and incentivizes visiting the shop, increasing spontaneous purchases;
• Season Pass and Squad League operate similarly to Brawl Stars, starting and ending on the same dates, helping players track the seasonal calendar and boosting both revenue and DAU.

However, Squad Busters made an interesting choice for the seasonal pass: before accessing the main pass, where there’s a risk of not gathering all rewards, players must complete a trial Starter Seasonal Pass without any time limits. Compared to the main pass, the starter season features a much shorter progression (10 stages instead of 30), a higher concentration of valuable rewards, and a cheaper paid version ($4.99 instead of $9.99).

This unique approach teaches players to work with the pass, gives them the satisfaction of fully completing it, and encourages them to take the completion of full battle passes more seriously. Additionally, this feature positively affects monetization, as the lower cost of the trial pass increases the likelihood of conversion.

Nevertheless, the paid pass in Squad Busters doesn't have the same appeal as in Brawl Stars:

• Instead of attractive art, standard character visuals are used, making the offer less noticeable and therefore less appealing in the shop;
• Rewards don't include unique privileges or cosmetics that could boost purchase motivation;
• Additionally, there is only one more expensive version of the paid pass, whereas in casual and mid-core games, there’s a trend towards offering two passes: a cheaper and a more expensive one.

It's worth noting that as the game evolves, these aspects will be adjusted. This is already happening. For example, the second seasonal pass finally introduced skins.

New Events: Drawing Inspiration from Casual Hits' LiveOps

When it comes to new event ideas, Squad Busters draws inspiration from successful casual games, which fits well with its casual nature and economy. Let's analyze some of the events available right after the game launched.

Tara’s Mystery Challenge — a minor daily event where players earn random rewards by opening chests after matches. This format encourages match participation and purchasing crate tickets. If a player runs out of tickets but hasn't collected all the rewards of the day, it motivates them to purchase consumables. Interestingly, as the player progresses, the number of random rewards increases, gradually intensifying the FOMO pressure.

More significantly, the game's first update reduced the event duration from 12 hours to just two, further heightening FOMO. This mirrors trends seen in other games, especially casual ones. For instance, in the Frozen City game, which belongs to the Idle Tycoon genre, trigger offers that previously lasted 24 hours were also shortened to two. This trend is worth watching!

Piñata Festival — a great example of a well-crafted social event. During matches, players collect special items that help them advance from stage to stage in the event. However, this event is nearly impossible to complete solo. Players can invite friends to join, and their combined results significantly accelerate progress. This event mechanic doesn't preclude solo participation but strongly encourages the use of social features.

Similar events include Baking Partners from Monopoly GO! and Dragon Nest in Royal Match, where players invite others to achieve more rewards through collective efforts. This might indicate a new trend in social events that we are already observing in our LiveOps & Updates Calendar!

Dragon Nest events in Royal Match and Baking Partners in Monopoly GO!

However, as mentioned above, in Squad Busters, you cannot make in-game friends as you can in Monopoly GO! and Royal Match. That's why we believe that the Piñata Festival will do even better once this issue is resolved.

Get a Spell is an event that unlocks new spells. To acquire a new spell for your collection, a player must use other spells a certain number of times during the event. It is unclear if this is simply a creative way to introduce new content or is aimed at addressing low engagement with the spell mechanics. However, it nicely complements other events, adding variety to the schedule and potentially serving as a foundation for future content-oriented events, which is definitely a good practice.

By the way, this is the only event with direct monetization: instead of accumulating the necessary points, a player can simply unlock a spell with currency.

Note that this is one of the most time-consuming events. You can regularly complete Tara’s Mystery Challenge and all daily quests, but this will almost certainly not be enough to unlock a new spell. Additional effort and attention are required!

The first update in the game introduced new events such as Bounty Hunt and Sneak Peek – Ice World, as well as announced future events like Unlock Bandit.

Bounty Hunt is another event reminiscent of casual projects. It adds an additional, but optional, quest to each match (or series of matches) — to destroy one or more mobs of a specific type. Completing the quest rewards the player with in-game currency. The event focuses on engagement, as each type of mob is tied to a specific world, and matches occur in random worlds. Thus, if a player wants to complete the quest, they generally must play several idle matches until they land in the required world.

A good example of this type of event can be found in match-3D games: for instance, in the Summer Challenge, where a player can collect certain event quest items level by level. While not directly impacting level completion, it awards special event points and increases motivation to continue playing.

With the first patch, the event Sneak Peek – Ice World was introduced, featuring special PvE opponents — ice spirits. Defeating them grants the player event points, which are used to unlock chests with new heroes. This is the first event with monetization via special offers.

These updates allow us to optimistically view the future of the game. Although LiveOps is not yet perfect, the company has a competent team working on improving the gaming experience. On our part, we can note a few things that could enhance LiveOps in Squad Busters.

• Small events with new gameplay (like "Monopoly," "Wheel of Fortune," excavations, fishing, etc.) can diversify the gaming experience. Even with multiple modifiers and different maps, one mode will eventually become monotonous.
• Discount events can help maintain monetization, preventing revenue drops on certain days or seasons.
• A login calendar is a classic event that boosts both DAU and long-term retention while maximizing metric growth during peak seasons and holidays.

Key Takeaways:

1. Utilizing best practices from previous games: from the start, the game features a well-thought-out LiveOps using proven solutions from previous Supercell games, aimed at maintaining player engagement.
2. Season pass improvement needed: the current seasonal pass lacks the appeal seen in Brawl Stars and requires better rewards and visual effects to boost player motivation to purchase it.
3. More events can be introduced: there is potential to introduce more diverse events inspired by various casual games to further increase player engagement and retention.
4. Early LiveOps skews initial metrics: a comprehensive LiveOps system at launch can artificially inflate metrics, potentially masking issues with the core gameplay.

Can Squad Busters be considered a successful game?

Squad Busters is a great game. Its developers aren't afraid to mix seemingly incompatible genres (for example, match-3 and MOBA). They aren't afraid to cater to players by turning off personalized monetization. Finally, they aren't afraid to acknowledge their mistakes and continue fixing those made at the game's launch.

At the same time, the game is not perfect. It has evident retention issues and specific shortcomings in nearly every area of functionality. The decline in metrics suggests that, in its current state, the project lacks something to become the next big hit. But the Supercell team has repeatedly shown they can work wonders — including through LiveOps.

If the game succeeds, we may soon witness the birth of a new genre combining roguelike, MOBA, and battle royale. Moreover, the approach of essentially skipping the soft-launch stage in favor of an immediate global release with a huge marketing budget might set a new operational trend.

Thanks to the delicate balance between casual and mid-core gaming, as well as a unique mix of genres, Squad Busters stands out among the rest of Supercell's portfolio. It seems sufficient to minimize the risk of audience cannibalization from other Supercell projects.

This is why we expect Supercell to significantly improve the game both in terms of the process and monetization. This means two important things: 1) this review will quickly become outdated (if it isn't already) and 2) Supercell will provide us with even more information and resources for research.