Supercell, the Finnish developer behind the popular mobile game Clash Royale, has unveiled the 2025 esports plans for the game with the official Clash Royale League (CRL). The format is similar to last year’s but now gives a significantly lesser number of players a chance at going pro.
Nonetheless, here’s a look at what players can expect from the CRL in 2025 – and why so many people are unhappy.
Image Credits: Supercell
Clash Royale Esports 2025 plans: CRL 2025 leads to an 8-player World Finals
The CRL 2025 will begin in April with the monthly qualifier. Supercell has decreased the number of monthly qualifiers, however, to just five this year. The format will be similar with the top 1000 players of the Path of Legends each month competing in the Monthly Qualifier from where the top eight will move on to the Monthly Finals. The winner of this will secure a ‘Golden Ticket’ to the CRL 2025 World Finals.
These monthly tournaments will happen from April to August as a part of the 2025 Clash Royale esports roadmap. Players can participate through the in-game tournament hub.
Additionally, each monthly tournament will give out competitive points to players. The player with the most points at the end of August (who doesn’t have a Golden Ticket) will be the sixth player in the offline World Finals.
The final two slots in the CRL World Finals 2025 will go to a player from China and the winner of an undisclosed community tournament.
Thus, the top eight players will meet at the CRL World Finals 2025 to crown the 2025 Clash Royale esports champion.
Players aren’t happy with the scaled-down format
The Clash Royale League (CRL) 2025 World Finals clocked in a peak viewership of 149,560, a significant decrease since the 228,608 it received in the previous year, per Esports Charts.
Nonetheless, players didn’t expect that Supercell would scale down the format to this level. In both the 2025 and 2025 editions, 16 players participated in the LAN World Finals. This has now been halved to just eight, giving a much lesser pool of people a chance to compete on the biggest stage.
Additionally, Supercell hasn’t revealed the prize pool for the 2025 esports season – something which it used to do in previous years while announcing the roadmap. Thus, there will be fewer incentives for players to play and a small number of esports orgs investing in the game to continue supporting the title.
This sentiment has resonated with the players as well, many of whom said the game is dying. Popular Clash Royale personality and professional player Morten said on Twitter:
“I expected nothing and still got disappointed. Clash Royale things (sic).”
Players took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
Other popular players and creators also chimed in with their own takes on the situation. While the scaled-down format is a worrying trend for the future of Clash Royale esports, it remains to be seen how the game fares throughout 2025.
