Clash Royale dev Supercell's sales growth stalled in 2016 -- but profits went up

Finnish mobile game maker Supercell, now majority-owned by Tencent and best known for its remarkably popular fre-to-play games Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, reported that its sales growth stalled last year -- but its profits continue to rise.

The stall in revenue growth is notable, though perhaps not surprising given that last year the mobile game market was saw the advent of Niantic and The Pokemon Company's mega-popular Pokemon Go, as well as Nintendo's first mobile Mario game, Super Mario Run.

Speaking to reporters from Reuters and other outlets today at Supercell's Helsinki HQ, company chief Ilkka Paananen said that "despite tighter competition, this was the best year so far in financial terms. Clash Royale was a huge hit."

The financial terms he's probably referring to there are Supercell's reported 2016 profits, which climbed to 917 million euros (roughly $972 million USD). That's a respectable jump up from the 848 million euros (~$899 million USD) in profit the company brought in during 2015.

However, the 2016 revenue it earned that nearly $1 billion in profits on was roughly the same as it was in 2015 -- 2.1 billion euros. Supercell's CEO reportedly acknowledged that its revenue growth last year remained flat due to icnreasing competition in the market, but said the company would stay the course going forward.

"In the summer, when Pokemon Go was a huge hit, a taxi driver asked me what would be our counter-attack,"  Paananen said. "I said there's no point in doing something against a competitor, we must only focus in doing what we do best, improve our games further."