Sowing the seeds of stability: Ten years of Supercell's Hay Day

gamesindustry.biz:

Danielle Partis

News Editor

Tuesday 28th June 2022

Ten years ago, Finnish mobile outfit SuperCell launched Hay Day, its mobile-centric answer to the social farming trend that was dominating the market at the time.

This month, the game celebrates its tenth anniversary -- and it's still going strong despite significant evolution in the mobile space.

Since 2014, the game has generated around 332 lifetime downloads, and approximately $1.7 billion in player spending. In 2021, Hay Day saw a 35% increase in revenue year-over-year, making $183 million following the introduction of its premium farm pass, according to Sensor Tower.

While it continues to evolve and offer new content for new and long-time players alike, the core Hay Day team considers the game a well oiled machine that is self-sustaining.

"I feel like Hay Day is in a good state right now as it has so many things for players to do, and it has such a loyal fanbase," Hay Day game designer Camilla Avellar tells GamesIndustry.biz. Avellar worked on the title between 2014 and 2021, but is now building another project within the Finnish firm.

"So many people still play it every day that it feels like this solid game that can run itself almost."

While Zynga and Facebook had cornered the genre on social media with FarmVille, Hay Day was among the first to offer a mobile alternative to the hugely popular genre, which set it apart from a lot of competitors in the space.

"We were very early to the market with Hay Day," Avellar says. "And we really tried to make it feel native to mobile, it was very touch based. We weren't trying to imitate a mouse cursor, we were making it for your hand, and I feel like that really set us apart from what existed back then."

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