At GDC last week, Brawl Stars general manager Frank Keienburg and game designer Frank Yan outlined what went wrong with the game in late 2022 and early 2023 as retention and revenue hit an all-time low.
The Brawl team then removed loot boxes from the game entirely, and later rolled out a suite of new features that turned the game around throughout last year. That included the re-introduction of randomised rewards, a retooled season pass, special moves for super-engaged players and a piggy bank-like feature.
Those features worked: revenue was up 8.8 times from June 2023 to February 2024, and the game has returned back to top 20 top grossing games rankings.
First, Keienburg and Yan explained the thinking behind ditching loot boxes, after they noticed a general decline in MAU and revenue in 2022.
The Brawl team were aware that finding a Legendary brawler in a Brawl Box was exciting for players. But under the existing gacha system, even its most engaged players needed 10 months to unlock a Legendary. Those who have been playing for a year has, on average, unlocked 0.9 legendaries.
So Supercell decided to ditch Brawl Boxes entirely. Keienburg and Yan said they wanted to take more risks and give players more choice and clearer goals. The game’s declining revenue and MAU didn’t help, of course, and the increased scrutiny of loot boxes overall.
Keienburg and Yan said they were “naive” in removing all random rewards from the game, though. Its first attempt at post-Brawl Box monetisation was to make its Starr Road progression system linear, with all brawlers unlocked in succession, in a pre-determined order. There were also rare items and a new earnable and purchasable currency, Credits.
With over 60 brawlers in the game, Supercell still wanted to offer players some choice, so it allowed them to choose from a selection of characters to unlock. The changes went live in December 2022, and it worked, briefly. Then it became apparent it was not a long-term fix, as DAU began to decline again.
The addition of new trinkets for advanced players, Masteries, followed in February 2023, and in April 2023 Supercell added further costume and player customisation options. And while they worked for the hardcore players, the game’s DAU kept on declining.
“We did not understand what out players wanted” said Keienburg and Yan of the Starr Road reboot. “We were in an echo chamber and didn’t realise it”.
Brawl Stars hit its lowest ever MAU in March 2023, and the team threw its original roadmap for 2023 in the trash, they said. The team decided to add random engagement rewards back into the game in June 2023. “We had to infuse rewards once again with excitement,” said Keienburg and Yan.
The new randomised rewards came in the form of Starr Drops, with three Drops earned with every eight wins. This is where the recovery began in terms of D30 retention. Supercell also ran some re-engagement campaigns to coincide with the new feature.
Keienburg and Yan said they had learned a lesson: “Random rewards are exciting for our players! Doh!”. D30 retention rose throughout 2023, and then increased at a greater pace with the introduction of Hypercharges in September that year.
Hypercharges are special moves, effectively, a feature borrowed from Clash Royale which unlocks only when a player character is maxed out at level 11. This gives super engaged players something to aim for along the upgrade path. The following month, the team also added the ‘Mega Pig’ feature, which also helped boost D30 retention.
The Mega Pig feature replaced the Club League and Quests features, offering groups of players easier entry into the event and fewer matches to earn rewards. Those rewards would accumulate until the player ‘breaks them out’ of the Mega Pig.
Then, in November, Supercell told players it would be moving the Brawl Pass over to be IAP-only. This was part of a reboot that made Brawl Pass seasons shorter, removed the exclusive brawler in each pass and increased XP earned for pass owners. It also added 5v5 matches for the first time.
Starr Drops were also sprinkled throughout other areas of the game besides the core gameplay, unlockable through engagement in social, ranked matches and live ops.
The suite of changes, once they were all introduced, boosted Brawl Stars’ MAU 2.4 times and DAU 3.9x between June 2023 and February 2024. Most importantly, though, revenue was up a beefy 8.8x for the same period.
The refreshed suite of spending options also dramatically changed where and how players spend. Given a broader range of options beyond gacha, unlocking characters is still the top way players spend gems, and Coins have become more desirable because of their wider range of uses. Levelling up, cosmetics and other buffs have also become more popular.
Keienburg and Yan concluded the talk with some takeaways, emphasising the importance of being clear with players by simplifying design processes and reducing noise around big changes. Big changes are not a silver bullet, they noted, and urged designers faced with a similar situation to seek out colleagues outside your bubble that can challenge your assumptions.
Finally they concluded that random rewards are exciting – doh! – and that if you see retention-based momentum, double down on it.
