Clash Royale Has ALWAYS Been Pay To Win.

A video essay (more like ramble) about the fact that Clash Royale has always been P2W right from its inception back in 2016.
This video aims to explore the brief history of Clash Royale's monetary practices and eventually comes to the conclusion that Clash Royale has always been P2W via the evidence provided within my video alongside how Supercell is most likely going to get away with this.
Although I promised an upload on Monday, I couldn't resist getting it out on the four-month anniversary of when my first-ever video was uploaded to KZbin. However, to accomplish this, I had to cut the subtitles from the video unless I was correcting myself!
Apologies for the mic peaking at the beginning of the video, I was sat a little too close to my mic when recording the voiceover and only noticed after assembling the ENTIRE video!
Enjoyed the video? Join my Discord server here! - / discord
[MUSIC USED]
Various soundtracks from Mario Kart Wii, including:
Luigi Circuit & Mario Circuit
Mushroom Gorge
Coconut Mall
Wario's Goldmine
Maple Treeway
Moonview Highway
GCN DK Mountain
GBA Bowser's Castle 3
[CREDIT]
Molt for several clips used of his 2016 video:
CHEST OPENING CHALLENGE :: Clash Royale :: WHO GETS THE LEGENDARY!?
-
Various Supercell Animations, of which I've lost track of the names.

[@NaidvarRambles]

ah yes only clash royale could make an entire community go through the 5 stages of grief in just under 4 months 💀 Enjoyed the video? Join my Discord server here! - discord.gg/9hQzYVYD2T

[@ZiggyNext]

Good stuff as always Naidvar. You and CWA the only genuine content creators and not compromised by SC. Even Reddit and X are filled with SC employees trying to push SC propaganda and censoring dissidents and detractors.

[@Sam-en7jk]

The fact is they didn't even apologise yet for the update when everyone was speaking up Brad to OJ shows there greed level is over 9000

[@NaidvarRambles]

supercell as a company in general is becoming more scummy but I'll be explaining that in next week's video

[@theoverseer1775]

​@@NaidvarRambles what, are you talking about the Brawl Stars update? Hypercharge? That _really_ doesn't seem as p2w as people make it out to be. It will let Shelly kill you in a situation where she would have killed you anyway. Colt just gets a slightly bigger width super. Bull's hypercharge seems useless, Spike's seems like the only good one, and we don't know what Pearl's is yet. There really isn't that much making the game p2w now, and I feel like people are making too big a deal of it. As for clash of clans, that game has always been p2w, since you'd automatically get faster upgrades if you paid for them. But the amount of gems you need for those upgrades was always too big so people are discouraged from it. Once again, it's can't be considered p2w if you have common sense. And idk what's going on with Hay Day and Boom Beach, Clash Mini seems like it's going to die and I'm starting to think Clash Heroes has been cancelled.

[@halqthedarktemplar]

​​@@theoverseer1775for hypercharge, you seem to miss the stats buffs. Also on the same update they made leveling up more significant, so non, maxed players will have a harder time

[@AGamerthatregretsalot]

Someone give more context to this I’m lost

[@madgamersam1293]

Clash of clans is not pay to win, it is still fun.

[@NikolasThane]

I hope this game actually does die.

[@LolCat361]

Dead Clash Royale = Supercell learns their lesson and makes good Clash games that are accessible to f2p players.

[@bbridge7629]

Yes it's a P2W game. At some point, you will lose in a row. No matter how good your skill or deck is, they give you enemies that able to counter your deck. So you're gonna frustrate, and do whatever it takes to win. They know how human emotions work. That's how they make money. I did enjoy this game a lot until I realized it's not a skill-based.

[@funnyhttps]

I remember playing Clash Royale back in 2017. I rememeber every morning I would play it, and I remember being so happy when I almost beat the game

[@Warmness]

The great times of spamming mini pekka the bridge whenever I had 4 elixir

[@Emo6464]

Its honestly sad seeing the game I once played destroy its own reputation it built for it self in only a few months.

[@uo9493]

Same. I remember when it was massive at my school. It was fun having people play together over a game, it was a great time.

[@superbreadysyoutubethingy8264]

Let's be honest, ever since Mega Knight, cards would start to have the chance of being very broken at launch, and hey look you could buy that card in the shop for 10 bucks US! Seriously, I don't think anyone would care if that card was gone, it would mildly heal the meta even (though idk, I stopped playing after Knight Evo). Also I wish we got more high quality animations like Lost and Crowned, seriously the small bit of world building we got from that short film was incredible considering this all stemmed from a mobile game.

[@NaidvarRambles]

i honestly loved how much the lost and crowned added to the game's lore, it's just a shame that we're probably never going to get something like that again unless it's for a cameo or for a follow-up if supercell's budget is willing to permit it as it took a LOT OF WORK and animators to create such a thing; it's also why i love featuring the animation so much inside of my videos, it's SO GOOD, i just need to make sure not to overuse it also yeah the mega knight dropped the game has been in a constant state of flux, might be something to talk about in the future

[@superbreadysyoutubethingy8264]

Also, not saying I predicted it, but like 2 years ago I literally had the idea that was like, "wow, Clash of Clans has Super Troops, wouldn't it be cool if there was a fun party mode that just made all the cards upgraded versions of themselves." With that thought I somehow "predicted" Barbs and Royal Recruits Evolution... which is a bad thing because at least the dumb idea I had was it's own game mode.

[@superbreadysyoutubethingy8264]

@@NaidvarRambles As wishy washy as they could be, I still had a little hope we may get another masterpiece like Lost and Crowned since it seemed like they had a good amount of care put into some of the newer card reveals and season animations, but with time it seemed they've reverted to either no animation, the more stilted animation that feels like stills with mild movements (which was fine for the Monk video tbf), or uh... what ever you want to call the current state of Cash Royale ads 💀 The Mega Knight video does sound cool, but honestly seeing how you really liked Lost and Crowned, perhaps a video in the future both talking about the short film and the weird constantly changing state of CR's promotional animations would be a really cool video to see, especially since it's a topic no one has touched.

[@superbreadysyoutubethingy8264]

@@skissue12929 I won't say you're wrong, because you're not. But also the hate for Mega Knight, especially on release was well deserved.

[@superbreadysyoutubethingy8264]

@@skissue12929 It's less of countering him (which does fall under the silver bullet argument) and the fact that he can counter most pushes (unless there's 2 tank killers or a Pekka/Mega Knight) and also being able to easily counter push with. There's also the fact that he feels a bit overstuffed with abilities, which is more of design flaw than balancing issue (Fun fact he was going to have a shield). I think now he's better than what he used to be, but playing when he first came out, where he could counter both a valk, lumberjack, and knight if on an ally towerside was awful. You needed to run either Mega-knight, Pekka, or Mini + rage or another tank killer. Though Infero Dragon and Tower were decent counters, more so now. tl;dr - Now that the decks that contain him a well know, and his stats have been tampered around, he's better to fight now. But the issue was he started the trend of cards possibly being broken at launch while have special deals to get the card early.

[@user-mx1rb2vz3v]

i remember back in 2016 getting a legendary was 100 times harder than getting a champion ever was, there was a spanish KZbin who spent 48k gems to get the princess and didn't get her, clash royale has gotten less greedy over the year up until 2023

[@xpiggyyyplayz6752]

It would be cool if you could make a video on all the different ways of monetisation different games use and how it impacts the games differently - seeing as you talk so much about the exploitative monetisation of Clash Royale.

[@NaidvarRambles]

gotcha, gonna put that down in the notebooks, expect a video next week about it!

[@xpiggyyyplayz6752]

@@NaidvarRambles 😀

[@magicmahdi124]

I was casually playing arena 5 when this one dude literally had the best and I mean THE BEST cards in arena 5. I just gave up and gave up on clash royale. Play it if you like spending money

[@tidalwave-tj1zl]

Im fucking furious at this game i’m stuck between 5550-5670 trophies for like hours now because every time i fucking get near the champion chest some overpriced user comes in. It’s like as if they do this intentionally to make you drop money. I’m pissed at this. I’m still f2p aswell. I’m genuinely concerned for what unfair p2w matchmaking lies ahead in future arenas.

[@BigCheeseEvie]

I remember reaching 4000 when leagues were first added and I had like lvl 7-8 cards against mostly 9-10. It has always been pay2win because the amount of interactions you lost simply because you were too good at the game was insane

[@dlovansl2]

As someone that has played this game since 2016 and when I was 10, the game seemed to be so much fun and ive had lot of memories with it along with messing with my irl friends about that I had some sort of "hack" to rejoin the friends clan again after they kicked me as a joke. I can tell more but this is yet the funniest thing I've had to mess with my friends that was at the same age as me and believed I was cheating. Since this is the comment section it will probably too much to write all of it but I can tell that I've had so much fun with the game and the best time for its progression side was before quests was removed. This game was everything to me, I've had so many good memories with it in class and with being friends to play. Sadly, it isn't really the same anymore with the recent awful updates they've put into the game.

[@NaidvarRambles]

i wish we could turn back time to those good old days where we only had to worry about the people who had huge enough wallets and were willing to blow their money on super magical chests whilst simultaneously sucking the fun out of the game for themselves nowadays we deal with someone borrowing their mom's debit card for a 12 dollar variation of the pass royale and watch in horror as they duke on their opponents with ease

[@dlovansl2]

@@NaidvarRambles I know right, it just has gotten worse in every single way along with the higher level cards that people intend to have

[@uo9493]

​@@dlovansl2combine that in school & it made it fun being in class as if you got along with classmates, it would be fun in break or lunch. Ahh, good times ..

[@rarmstrong010]

Half way through I realized that I had accidentally been watching the background video the whole time

[@matt6260]

Its not about Card levels or New card releases Its the infuriating MATCHMAKING that somehow has like a 100% counter to any deck i used Like you use hog cycle too bad your opponent has a Mega Knight, Skarmy, 2 buildings and a Tornado You wanna play X bow? Okay here is an opponent that has 6 tank cards to make sure your X bow doesnt connect You want play a bait deck? Oh no here is an opponent that has 4 splash cards and 3 mini spells Like goddamn it

[@fluflammer1]

That’s true after a game or 2 they put you against people who directly counter ur deck im in arena 17 and all I face is a bunch of pay to win people who have level 15 cards my cards are barely level 12/13ish i hope this game dies this shit is ridiculous

[@chava8907]

Most the time as well I feel is the accounts are bots or ai you can say it doesn’t feel “real”

[@deelara1579]

The emojis system is also predatory.

[@monkeyloveballs3089]

im so sad that supercell still doing like this this is my favorite game and dev keep doing these thing are making me feel bad and not fun to play

[@datfurryboi7180]

The new update from what we see seems like clash royal dev team might go back to how they where since the royal recruits evo is actually balanced plus they gave alot of gold. But we dont know if its actually ttue

[@Narutimake]

Haven't seen the video yet but I 100% agree with the title

[@AlwaysAWreck]

I’m so sad that this shit is happening now because back in around 2017 there was a Star Wars version of CR called force arena that had some really interesting gameplay with you controlling a hero but if you died you couldn’t place cards and had to respawn for a risk reward type deal. It was also fairly F2P friendly from what I remember with some interesting game modes. The game shut down due to a lack of real advertising but if it was still here I think it would definitely have a shot now.

[@aaronbriggs5265]

Holy crap someone else who actually played that! I totally forgot that existed, you unlocked some old memories my friend

[@seasicksolid7356]

We always knew they were greedy and p2w, but we’ve never seen it to this extent. And this extent is fucking crazy. Oj to Brad, the SC hasn’t even listen to them, showing their level of greed is beyond anything imaginable

[@Hokagezoro555]

Another good content

[@Council_Member]

ain't no way Clash Royale is money hungry brawls starts is insanely free to play and Clash of Clans is in between What the fuck is SuperCell doing. I guess it comes down to the devs of each games

[@rayhancuenco6365]

Clash royale is different than clash of clans in p2p scenarios while you 1:30 can pay to progress in clash of clans or clash royale like your troops buildings and heroes/champions or even the battle pass it only nudges you towards higher level enemies but still relatively stronger or weaker than you clash royales progression is different from clash of clans. Clash royale allows you to pay for items most commonly and most used is the wild cards that let you upgrade any troop you want Meanwhile f2p players have to use a mechanic called Luck the progress system being solely on luck by chests is just annoying hard and almost unfair you might be able to get a random card level higher than the cards your deck uses so even if your level 11 and you fight another level 11 your enemy will prob have level 14-13 cards while your still at 11-12 While clash of clans has a steady progress system now you might be saying but you can p2w in clash of clans too you can get good progress on your troops or buildings My only answer to that is just to skip that p2w base that’s a mechanic clash of clans has that dosent anger the community the fact that you can just skip the p2w bases and just fight anyone you like Meanwhile clash royale always locks you in with a random person overleveled or under leveled

[@Chris-rj4bt]

It’s kinda funny how every once in awhile Supercell will recycle ideas from their other games and market it as this new ground breaking thing. They’ve done this before but the most recent example is Coc Super Troops = Royale Evolutions = Brawl Hyoercharge. I hope Supercell moves away from the coc monetization model with their next games. They need to let that pay2progress model go, it only works perfectly with coc and causes issues down the line for other games

[@primella8135]

I don’t think mega knight is op or anything but it’s a prime example of how much of a difference overlevel cards can be mega knight gains 300+ health when it’s gains a level and it’s extremely difficult to counter when your knight mini pekka etc are even just one level under it’s one of the main issues with clash royale

[@eggedygeiming2272]

no after this whole downfall ll the other players from supercell games are scared this will tumble into theres , even im scared for the new hypercharge and the whole update around it. but i guess we will just have to wait and see. :(

[@just1moth293]

trying hard to get back into it but at my lvl 10 average arena my opponents all have 14s or 12s

[@orionfire1947]

The writing was on the wall, outlined in the blood of those who came before us. It just sucks, man.

[@omernamialan7721]

I would love it if supercell instead of in app purchases would make their games cost money but be fair

[@chava8907]

So far I’ve played for 2 years and just the recent session on playing for about 3 hours I hadn’t won a single match and after 30games every match was either countered or I couldn’t make a successful damn move 😭

[@mr.potat0w549]

As a brawl stars player,I don't like the idea of hypercharges,only few brawlers could actually use it and useable only on maxed brawlers,meanwhile it sounds very bad already but it's kind of not (kinda),progression in brawl stars is way easier than cr (no offense to ya bros),maxing a brawler can be done in 2 weeks and you can max 1.5 brawler per pass,doesn't even count other sources of progression,anyway to get carried away,getting those hypercharges isn't that big of a problem to be fair,but the way it done is just absurd,as I said only 6 brawlers have it and those brawlers rn are BROKEN because of it (especially Bull and Shelly..),and what makes them broken isn't especial buff for the super,no, it's the stats buffs,and as someone who got one hypercharge on Shelly,spoilers,it's BROKEN. This shouldn't have happened,the either don't do hyperchages now until they get a good number of them to not make 6 brawlers top tier, but also gives you time to balance them out (especially with the stats buffs and the bugs). But tbh,I don't mind it that much since I myself as a semi-f2p was able to get very quickly (literally day one),I am fine as long as it is accessible to f2p players. What I don't like is WHY THE HELL ARE THEY IN POWER LEAGUE (brawl star's competitive game mode),this thing in power league is like a shot to the leg to the competitive scene,it's just absurd to me,I was able to use it on a semi tank on a pure long range map and still won with positive k/d,that's just how absurd they are.

[@bugra-yildirim]

Yeah lmao. People act like this is a new thing. I never committed myself to clash royale since level difference meant everything and level 12-13 was so hard to get. Especially for legendary cards . I was in legendary arena with 10-11 level cards but the game constantly get harder at that level since everyone was 13 level and I only had like 1 card at level 12. After years I downloaded the game again for champions just to learn they added level 14 lmao. Imagine what heartstone players would do if you could level up your cards lmao

[@DiamondAcademy2]

Fluff ball, you need to attack in CWLs. 😹

[@xpiggyyyplayz6752]

Ahh here's the comment 😂

[@DiamondAcademy2]

@@xpiggyyyplayz6752 Lmao You’re in the clan too?

[@xpiggyyyplayz6752]

@@DiamondAcademy2 Im firewall wraak

[@AnimalManiaGame]

Our games gonna be love to win

[@calixtopinugu4191]

Whats wrong with clash royale being paid to win? Most Video games are litterally pay to win nothing specail lol

[@DiamondAcademy2]

So you don’t like being called Fluff Ball or Stuffed Animal? 🧸

[@NaidvarRambles]

I actually don't mind but usually those are terms reserved for my girlfriend, not sure if she would be cool with you calling me a fluff ball 😳

[@DiamondAcademy2]

@@NaidvarRambles But it’s such a cute name for you. X3

[@xpiggyyyplayz6752]

This thread is too funny omg 😂

[@Zelkata]

the game became ass since mega knight

[@NaidvarRambles]

mega knight is that one bully in the playground that clearly nobody likes but they have a small set of friends in the form of the electro giant and anyone who sweats hog 2.6

[@superbreadysyoutubethingy8264]

So ture

[@Zelkata]

@@NaidvarRambles at least the electro giant looks cool, mega knight just looks like shit mofo with balls on his hands at least i can sleep well knowing his hands atrophied to the point where he'll need help to wipe his fuckinng ass

[@neonoir__]

finally someone is actually saying this. It has ALWAYS been pay to win, pay for faster progress is pay to win. It just used to be less blatant also anyone who thinks this exact same thing won't happen to brawl stars is delusional

[@alanmoon2448]

I agree cr has always been p2w. I prefer playing bs,coc or CM.

[@RaidenWithBiden]

My god... This video revives 6-7th( about 2017) grade memories about CR being p2w or not (i said its not) Now, 2023. I long since stopped playing seriously, because I lost my old profile, and it would be hard to get back cards and levels, so I only play draft modes with friends, which is really fun to this day. Looking back at the old times, we had a luxurious time. The biggest concern was the jumping fireball himself, the Mega Knight... Today, we have evolutions (WTF is that power there), overpriced diamond pass, level 15 (whats so bad in this really? if someone can answer, please do), the hated CW2, scummy evo "balancing", and these are just a few things... Yeah, trying to argue that CR is f2p is a bit harder now. BTW, Pekka rocks and it's the all-time MVP!

[@Kneecapss]

the game sucks now

[@NaidvarRambles]

agreed

[@Kneecapss]

@@NaidvarRambles your channel is so underrated for the quality of your videos

[@TechnoTurbo]

ok

[@Hanzz_ganz]

Pay 2 win is low figthing

[@Bloxfruitsistrashlmaocope]

For once i will agree with a furry

[@muellermat]

Nothing to say so obligatory comment for the algorithm.

[@haychelalexandersantoso2630]

Its not pay to win... But pay to play right now

[@NotLicious]

??

[@manicstatic370]

It doesn’t cost anything

[@ivanespada9563]

Evolution cards really made a bigger mess somehow, even though I didn't think it was possible to make it more unfair, and pay2win than it arleady was...

[@bruhmoment.-.]

this game sucks shit now, any other good games that are similar?

[@barbs896]

Boom arena

[@CarpYT576]

Nah this didn't age well 😂​@@barbs896

[@eyeslanderer]

Clash Royale dying, can furries be next? 😭🙏

[@NaidvarRambles]

this comment is more cringe than my existence

[@wilbert101]

​@@NaidvarRamblesyep

[@pitchblendeprotogen]

Something told me I'd find Roblox on your channel LMAO

[@Im-not-a-troll]

Don't like the game? Just uninstall it. No dramas

[@theman1526]

🤡

[@TristanLouisino89]

This game is like judaism. The more greedy you are the more you go up in the life of game