Clash Royale: How a Finnish Phone Game Became the UN of Microtransaction Diplomacy
From the barrios of Bogotá to the banlieues of Paris, diplomats and day-laborers now share the same nightly ritual: thumbs flicking at 3-inch kingdoms, launching pixelated knights into other people’s phones with the solemnity of a drone strike. Clash Royale—Supercell’s four-year-old, free-to-start, pay-to-keep-your-dignity mobile skirmisher—has quietly become the most widely spoken second language on Earth….