Both Of Supercell's Latest Releases Rank Top Grossing iPad Games

    With two of Helsinki-based Supercell’s titles in the top 25 grossing iPad Games in the US, we decided to get in touch with Ilkka Paananen, the CEO of the company, to see if they could share anything about their success.

    The two games on the App Store charts are Hay Day, a farming simulator game similar to Farmville in many respects. My colleague, Antti Vilpponen, reviewed the game “for many hours,” which got the whole office playing and trading eggs and wheat on the free market. Read Antti’s review here.

    Supercell’s other title, Clash of Clans, is similar, but more within the fantasy realm. In the game, not only do you have to make sure your army is well equipped and adequate against attacks while you’re away but also make sure your finances are in order to keep building your village.

    What’s more impressive is the fact that Supercell is one of the four developers/publishers of games that have two releases in the list. The other publishers include Electronic Arts, GREE and Playtika.

    Below is our short interview with Ilkka Paananen.

    How have you guys handled marketing and sales to got the apps into the top ten?

    We have done very little marketing. I think our best marketing comes from the products themselves, our users love them (both have average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5) which means they talk about them to their friends. Also, our products are designed to be more fun when played with friends and other people, which makes them grow virally. In Clash of Clans, the entire game play centers around this idea of “clans”, and we are seeing lots of people creating new clans and inviting their friends to join them. On Hay Day, the social mechanic centers around trading, and again people are looking for other farmers they can trade with. To give you an idea of the volume, we are seeing more than 5 million trades per day in Hay Day.

    And finally, of course it has also helped a lot that Apple has featured our products in the App Store which makes them easier for consumers to discover.

    What have you guys done between updates to increase sales within the app?

    We have made the games better based on the feedback we have received from our users. Also, we have constantly added more content to the games, i.e. there is more to play.

    Can you give us some indication of revenue the the top ten games are giving a month?

    Sorry but no. 🙂

    What are you guys going to do from now on to fuel the growth?

    Make the products even better, and keep listening our users on what they would like to see in them.

    Can you share with us anything about what new IP you’re coming out with next?

    No new product announcements at this time, sorry 🙂