Pass Royale? Did Clash Royale just Become Pay to Win?

It’s been a second season since Supercell released the latest Pass Royale to its fans. But with the increase of micro transactions and loot boxes in mobile games, it begs the question.

Did Clash Royale just become another "pay to win game" with its new Pass Royale?

First, let’s take a look at what the Pass Royale does for its audience. For $5 you can obtain new tower skins and limited edition emotes as well as grind to earn crowns which unlock lightning strikes that allow you to have more say in which cards you receive from your chests. You do receive a guaranteed legendary card, but the card is still based on RNG (random number generation). In addition to exclusive tower skins and emotes, the Pass Royale gives you unlimited entries for special challenges where you can win more limited edition emotes and gives you a queue option where you can pre queue a chest to begin opening once you’re your first chest is finished. 

Now let’s consider the difference between pay to win vs pay to progress. It’s important to note that while:

P2W games give you exclusive access which give significant competitive advantages that are not available for F2P players

a P2P does not give you exclusive access to game mechanics that change your gameplay and only give you temporary advantages by allowing you progress a little faster if you are matched against lower-level tier players.

The Pass Royale does not unlock any special features (that directly affect gameplay) that other F2P players can’t earn, except of course, it does give you a shiny golden title and lets your clanmates know that you bought in.

It has also created some chatter around the seemingly out of proportion matchmaking this second season. Many players are still complaining about the unfair advantages the P2P players have in the arena when it comes to ranked matches. With the updates to trade cards in clans though, F2P players can find strong teams to trade cards with and earn tokens through challenges that help them maximize their level.  

And although some players feel very strongly that this clash pass was a pay to win grab...as an avid clanmate and mobile gamer, it's clear to me that

Clash Royale's new Pass Royale is more of more of a fast track subscription which allows newer players a way to catch up to the rest of their team.

With that being said, I must tip off my hat to the Supercell team for creating a unique way to earn money, without degrading their game. As the dedicated Supercell team continues to make updates, it will be interesting to see when the 3rd season comes around – how "even" the matchmaking is and whether or not they add features that give competitive gameplay mechanics to buyers only. So to answer the question; Does the Pass Royale make Clash Royale another pay to win game?

No. It's an optional $5 subscription that allows players to progress faster.