Mo.co’s Exclusive Launch Strategy Works!

Supercell mo.co’s Exclusive Launch Strategy Is Working – Here’s Why 👇🏻

mo.co by Supercell is out globally, but is it?

You can’t play unless you’ve received an invite.

This growth hack is a masterclass in product marketing and might just be a groundbreaking way to launch a game globally while reaching a massive audience. Before diving into the growth strategy, let’s first break down just how polished the experience is, given its invite-only launch.

For the TL;DR, check out my video below 🤟🏻

monetisation_polished.pdf

From day one, the game has all key monetization elements in place. However, instead of following the traditional monetization model of dungeon crawlers, where items, wearables, and cosmetics often provide power, mo.co separates cosmetics from gear. This approach aligns its monetization closer to Fortnite rather than conventional freemium mobile games, let alone dungeon crawlers.

The monetization strategy is well-planned, featuring multiple currency sinks for both hard and soft currency that gradually unlock as you progress through the game.

Beyond that, the game includes familiar freemium best practices, such as a battle pass priced at $9.99 and a starter pack valued at $2.50.

From a monetization standpoint, mo.co is as advanced and well-thought-out as any other globally launched title.

immersiveness_polished.pdf

The game introduces a completely new IP, with no ties to Supercell’s existing universes like Clash or Brawl Stars. Instead, it focuses on a fresh world centered around a startup built for one purpose: hunting monsters. The level of immersion is remarkable, extending beyond the game itself. Even the official website lets you apply for a “monster hunter” job to receive an invitation, and there’s an Easter-egg employee login page with a terminal-style interface. Is it useful? No. Necessary? No. Groundbreaking? Not really. But it’s fun, and it showcases the passion behind the game’s development.

This immersive design philosophy extends to the game itself. Instead of using a standard UI for everything, mo.co integrates mechanics that deepen player engagement. Unlike some dungeon crawlers with complex, non-linear maps that might alienate casual players, mo.co keeps things intuitive: your home is your base. Here, you can move freely, pet your cat, change gear in your wardrobe, and more. This makes the genre more accessible while enhancing immersion.

Instead of a traditional quest log, missions and objectives are delivered through an employee chat UI. Different characters from mo.co send messages guiding your monster-hunting tasks. Rather than a standard map, you use a portal to travel between locations. These small touches add charm, humor, and quirks that never break immersion.

summary_polished.pdf

Beyond monetization and immersion, the game itself is exceptionally polished. It runs smoothly, looks stunning, and is incredibly fun to play. Just check out this moment below where I used my skill to clear the map of DROGS and racked up a solid amount of XP.

At this point, the game feels more than ready for a global launch. In fact, it feels like it’s already been live for a year, that’s how polished, well-designed, and refined it is. So why the invite-only approach? Wouldn’t this strategy massively limit user acquisition potential?

The Growth Hacking Strategy

Exclusivity in app launches isn’t new, it’s been proven to work. Remember the meteoric rise of Clubhouse? For a short period, it was *the* app that was to be on. Clubhouse allowed users to join live audio discussions with celebrities and influencers, but only if they had an invite. Each user got just two invites to share, creating an artificial scarcity that played perfectly into human psychology.

But when the exclusivity faded, Clubhouse failed to retain users due to a lack of depth, and Twitter Spaces effectively replaced it.

Supercell has now applied this same exclusivity-driven growth model to mo.co, except this time, they’re doing it with a fully polished, global-ready game. Instead of following the traditional launch playbook of massive paid marketing, like DC: Dark Legion™ (which launched around the same time and currently ranks #11 on the iOS App Store for Games), mo.co has climbed to #6.

Currently, the only way to play is by receiving an invite. After about 10 minutes of gameplay, you get to invite three other players. To fuel demand, Supercell kicked off influencer campaigns on launch day, building hype around a game that most people couldn’t install yet.

Imagine being the only kid at school with access to the latest Supercell game, the one influencers are playing, but no one else can get. And not only do you have access, but you also control who gets in next. Social proof and exclusivity drive demand.

And it’s not just kids hyping it up in schools. Supercell took this strategy to the industry, during GDC, doubling down on immersion with a clever LinkedIn stunt. Since LinkedIn’s algorithm favors job updates over company posts, nearly every Supercell employee updated their profile to show they’d started a new role at “mo.co,” with absurdly creative job titles like “Special Technical Weapon Master.” It was funny, immersive, well-timed, and it worked.

Each player gets three invites, no more, no less. With geometric progression, it would take just 17 cycles to reach 100 million players. To accelerate this, Supercell employees were given extra invites, influencers shared invites and codes were shared on Reddit, shortening the cycle count to just eight to hit the same milestone.

It’s an incredibly unique way to launch a game, one that prevents them from running traditional paid marketing campaigns. After all, there’s no point in paying for installs when new users literally can’t play the game unless they’re invited.

Personally, I’m thrilled by this masterful execution of product marketing. At the time of writing, mo.co has skyrocketed to #6 on iOS within 48 hours, without any conventional user acquisition spend. I can’t wait to see just how far this strategy takes them.