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Clash of Clans used to have an enormous Arabic contingent with the high-end upgrades.

I once calculated what it took to have a fully upgraded base within a week (New Level 11--if I remember correctly ...) and it was something like over a million dollars.

And there were multiple fully upgraded bases within a week. Now that's a whale. o_O!

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I'm not sure about Clash but there are often game mechanics that kick in to heavily multiply your rewards. Spending $X gets you Y in game value but spending $2X gets you 5Y. And then it can compound with follow up offers targeted at the player/whale which may not be generally available.

So I don't doubt your figures but there's probably a "one week whale" trajectory that's built into it to give quick gratification for something like $250,000. Still seems outrageous but they can discount digital goods differently than retailers can.

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