Supercell has a long history of killing games at various stages of development. Let’s take a look at all titles that have been officially discontinued by the Finnish company since its browser-based MMO Zombies Online.
Note: The original article was published on October 4, 2022. It was updated on March 14, 2024 to add new games shut down by Supercell
How many games have Supercell killed?
In 2016, Supercell said in a video celebrating 100 million players across its gaming portfolio that it has killed 14 titles. “Finally, to make 4 games, we killed 14,” the caption read.
In February 2023, Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen said the company has killed 30+ games and launched only 5 hit titles. Some of them were discontinued before they entered soft launch, so their names are hard to find now.
Supercell currently has five live games in its portfolio: Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Hay Day, Boom Beach, and Brawl Stars. But it is worth noting that the company hasn’t launched a new game globally since December 2018.
The company is now working on several new projects. The list includes Clash Heroes (last news about it appeared in late 2021), Squad Busters (still expected to launch in 2024 after a few beta tests), and monster-hunting game Mo.co.
List of mobile games killed by Supercell
Gunshine.net
Also known as Zombies Online, it was the company’s debut browser game. Launched in early 2011, the isometric MMORPG peaked at 500k monthly players before shutting down in November of that year.
Supercell cited several reasons for killing Gunshine, including the high barrier to entry and the fact that “players were getting bored with the game after a month or two.”
Project “Magic”
Developed by a small team of five people, this game was expected to come out on Facebook. However, Supercell decided to kill this project after nearly six months in production.
Interestingly, it was created by the same team that later made Clash of Clans, which was also codenamed “Magic” at the early stages of development.
Pets vs. Orcs
It was Supercell’s debut mobile title, which was developed along with five other projects (including the also abandoned game codenamed “Tower’). Pets vs. Orcs was a casual strategy game that went live in 2012 but was shut down after just one month.
Battle Buddies
A tactical PvP shooter was one of those five games that Supercell had been working on in 2012. Only two titles from this era, Hay Day and Clash of Clans, survived to become one of the company’s main projects.
Spooky Pop
A match-3 game about ghostbusters entered soft launch in Canada and Australia in December 2014. Despite its high dynamics and eye-catching visuals, the title didn’t attract enough players, so Supercell shut it down in February 2015.
Smash Land
Supercell soft launched its battler, inspired by hits like Monster Strike and Puzzle & Dragons, in April 2015. However, Smash Land didn’t survive the beta and was discontinued later that year, with the company saying that it didn’t reach the “high standards set by our other games.”
Rush Wars
A PvP strategy game, where players had to build the defenses for their base and send squads to attack enemies, entered soft launch in August 2019. It was Supercell’s attempt to make a more casual version of Clash of Clans and Boom Beach.
However, the game was closed just three months into beta due to community feedback about repetitive gameplay. The company decided that the title was beyond salvation.
Hay Day Pop
A puzzler with meta progression, inspired by similar titles from Playrix and Peak Games, entered soft launch in March 2020. It was Supercell’s attempt to reach casual players. Despite generating nearly $1 million, the game was closed in November of that year, with the company saying that it didn’t “meet the standards we have set for ourselves and our players.”
Clash Quest
This turn-based tactical adventure strategy game was one of the three titles announced by Supercell last year. The company hoped that Clash Quest would become a great addition to the Clash universe, but the title was killed a year after its soft launch.
Everdale
Everdale launched in open beta in August 2021. The title was available in several countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
With Everdale, the company wanted to make an uncompetitive social game. It was a city builder aimed at “friendly collaboration”, where players would have to manage their own village and team up with other users in the so-called valleys to share progress with each other.
On October 3, 2022 Supercell announced the shutdown of Everdale, saying that it wants to make games that “will be played for years and remembered forever.” It turns out that this title didn’t live up to the company’s expectations.
“At Supercell we believe our players deserve the very best games, and despite all the efforts we made for Everdale, they did not meet the standards we have set for ourselves and for our players,” the statement reads.
In January 2023, Merge Mansion developer Metacore acquired the rights to Everdale. “We were honored to have this opportunity, but we were also very excited because we see a lot of potential in that game,” the studio’s CEO Mika Tammenkoski said.
Boom Beach: Frontlines
Branded as a spin-off to Boom Beach, the game was developed by Supercell-backed studio Space Ape. It soft launched in October 2021, but was shut down in November 2022. According to AppMagic, Frontlines generated $440k and surpassed 2 million downloads during its beta testing.
“We always set very high standards for our games at Space Ape, as our goal is to make the best games, played by many and enjoyed for years,” the studio said upon the game’s closure. “Even with all our efforts over the past year — introducing major features, redesigning progression, balancing the core gameplay, and much more — we felt that Boom Beach: Frontlines was still not reaching the expectations we had set for it.”
Floodrush
Announced in May 2023, Floodrush entered the Beta stage later that month. In terms of gameplay, it was a mix of the MOBA and battle royale genres, but it only lived for three months before being killed by Supercell.
“Throughout the beta testing stage, we carefully analyzed every feedback message sent to us and identified several issues, either with gameplay mechanics, controls, character dynamics or artistic aspects, among others,” the Finnish developer said at the time. “We concluded that, to uphold Supercell’s standards of excellence, we needed to make extensive changes to the point that they would transform Floodrush into something too distant from our initial vision.”
Clash Mini
Clash Mini was announced in April 2021, along with turn-based strategy game Clash Quest and co-op action RPG Clash Heroes. In March 2024, Supercell decided to cease development and merge the game with Clash Royale.
“Ever since the launch of Clash Mini into its Beta, we have strived for one simple thing: to make the best game we could,” the company said. “Our dream is to create great games that as many people as possible play for years and that are remembered forever.”