• by Danielle Oster , April 3, 2025

Gaming company Supercell entered into a partnership with TKO Group Holdings’ World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) spanning sponsorship and in-game integration.

The deal  arrives ahead of Wrestlemania 41 and brings WWE wrestlers to Supercell’s hit mobile strategy game “Clash of Clans,”  which the company says has amassed over two billion lifetime downloads since debuting on iOS in 2012 and Android the following year.

Throughout the month of April, a roster of WWE wrestlers will be featured in in- and out-of-game events, with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, Rhea Ripley, The Undertaker, transformed into "Clash of Clans" characters. Rhodes headlines the crossover as “Barbarian King.” Themed environments and other in-game aesthetics and Easter eggs will pay homage to the wrestling league.

Rhodes also stars in an “Unleash Your Inner Clash” campaign created in collaboration with creative agency David New York. In the live-action launch ad, he appears as himself, and under his actual in-game handle “OverlordRhodes,” revealing his ruthless approach to the game. As it turns out, he’s actually a longtime fan of the game -- and purportedly in the top 10% of players worldwide. A second ad depicts WWE wrestlers as their in-game characters.

"To bring these two iconic franchises together, we had to speak to both fan bases in an authentic way. When Supercell discovered that WWE superstar Cody Rhodes was actually a long-time Clash of Clans player, we knew there was a unique opportunity,” David New York CCO André Toledo said in a statement. “So we leaned into that contrast -- while he's a hero in the ring, he takes on a much more ruthless persona in Clash. This campaign celebrates that side of him, giving fans a closer look at the player behind the username OverlordRhodes, which he's been using for nearly a decade."

The campaign will continue throughout the month of April, culminating with Wrestlemania 41 April 19-April 20. As a result of the partnership, “Clash of Clans” will act as a match sponsor during the event.

“This partnership in ‘Clash of Clans’ is on a scale we’ve never created before – from the in-game event reaching tens of millions of players, to WrestleMania 41 and our Clash of Clans match as a first-of-its-kind event on the biggest stage,” Sara Bach, head of live games at Supercell, said in a statement.