We tore down Squad Busters’ economy to see how it achieves an impressive ARPDAU and what steps Supercell is taking to correct its underwhelming retention.

84% of player spend is hero shards, which players primarily earn by spending tickets to open chests earned from battles. Win streaks make up 33%–42% of battle chest shard rewards once players reach a streak of 10, encouraging players to spend to maintain a streak after a loss and maximize the value of their tickets.

Despite having nearly double the ARPDAU of Brawl Stars and 9% more monthly downloads during the same period in its lifecycle, Squad Busters has a 59% lower DAU—highlighting Squad Busters’ retention problems. Squad Busters removed purchasable consumables, suggesting they believed consumables harmed retention by creating pay-to-win mechanics.

Economists can read the full report for our complete economy data and analysis of how Squad Busters’ economy incentivizes spend through hero upgrades, battle chest tickets, and win streaks.