Deconstruction of Fun: a total of around $150 million was spent on Squad Busters. And this amount was not recouped by Supercell
On October 30, Supercell announced the closure of the project Squad Busters after two years of operation. This is the first title the company decided to "kill" after a global release. Mobile industry veteran Michail Katkoff, in his blog Deconstruction of Fun, estimated how much the Finnish hit factory's recent failure might have cost.
- Squad Busters was in active development for at least five years. The average size of its team, distributed between Helsinki and London, was 60 people. Considering expenses on outsourcing and support, development likely cost between $30 to $45 million.
- The game had a high-profile launch. It featured several commercials with Hollywood stars, and its presentation took place during the Summer Game Fest 2024. Katkoff estimated the cost of hiring actors at $15 million, and another $5 million went towards production, editing, and logistics.
- The biggest expenditure was on marketing. Here, Katkoff references Sensor Tower. According to the service, out of the 60 million downloads generated by the game, about 25 million were purchased. 40% of the paid traffic was on iOS. Based on this, the costs solely for user acquisition amounted to $65 million.
Overall, Michail notes that Supercell might have spent nearly $150 million on development, promotion, and support for the game. And, once again, according to him, this is a conservative estimate.
The game did not recover this money. In two years of operation, Squad Busters generated revenue of about $70-80 million.
