Candy Crush Jelly Saga vs Clash Royale - which will be the next mobile juggernaut?

2016 marks the year that two of the biggest names on the App Store - King and Supercell - debut new instalments in their biggest franchises.

King's got a brand new Candy Crush game, this time with jelly battles and boss fights. Supercell's taken Clash of Clans and turned it into a card-battling MOBA... thing.

Both will undoubtedly make their creators more money than you'll see in your life time. But which one will come out on top? Which will be dominating the Top Grossing charts come December?

Let's hear the arguments for each game...

Why Candy Crush Jelly Saga will win Candy Crush fans always want more levels

Candy Crush Saga has a distinct end. When you've finished, what else is there to do but jump into Candy Crush Soda Saga? And when you've finished that one...

Well, you go play Candy Crush Jelly Saga of course. No Candy Crush fan is going to turn their nose up at another 100-odd puzzles to solve.

It's like slipping on a favourite sweater

No crazy new rules to learn. No scary new mechanics to untangle. Outside of a few easy-to-understand modes, Jelly Saga will be instantly familiar to anyone who's played a Candy game before.

Which makes it very easy to download the game, and get trapped in another six month candy-swapping addiction.

Candy Crush is utterly addictive

Yes, Candy Crush Saga is made specifically to separate you from your money, and King has mastered a number of smart psychological tricks to do so. So why is it, if we know all this, that we're still playing the damn game?

Like a sticky toffee, something about Candy Crush's design makes it impossible to put down. "Just one more try" turns into 50 more goes, and, deep down, don't we all just want to be told that we're Jellyicious?

You can play it on the tube

Unlike Clash Royale, there's nothing stopping you from playing Candy Crush when you're on a crappy internet connection - or when you have no connection at all.

Which means you can sate your sweet tooth when you're on the bus or the tube, or on a flight, or in a subterranean cavern deep beneath Scunthorpe.

Sorry Clash Royale, mobile MOBAs don't make money

Many mobile games have tried to capitalise on the barn-storming success of MOBAs. There's Vainglory, Fates Forever, Solstice Arena, and The Witcher Battle Arena to name a few.

None have been massively successful, though, and we're still waiting on a mobile game that can rival DOTA 2 and League of Legends. What makes you think Clash Royale will be that game?

Clash of Clans players are too busy

Clash of Clans fans don't have time to play a new game - they're too busy with Clash of Clans. Between Clan Wars, endless village attacks, non-stop updates, and leaderboard jostling, who has time to play anything else?

Why Clash Royale will win Maybe this MOBA will work?

Maybe the "mobile MOBA" is a money-spewer just waiting to happen, but no one has cracked it just yet. And if anyone can solve that problem, it's Supercell.

By making it as straightforward as humanly possible - squeezing everything onto one screen, and stripping the genre down to its DNA - Supercell is betting that the secret to mobile success is simplicity.

It mixes the world's most popular genres

Clash Royale is a MOBA. No wait, it's a card battler. No wait! It's a tower defence game. This game cherry picks ideas from some of the most well-loved genres in gaming, enticing fans of everything from Hearthstone to DOTA to Kingdom Rush.

There are reasons to return daily

There are always new chests to open. There are always new cards in the shop. There are always new opponents to beat. Your clan is always asking for help. You're always just a feeeew more battles away from the next level up.

The game's player retention skills are off the charts. For anyone who starts playing Clash Royale in January, there's a strong chance that they'll still be playing it come December.

Candy Crush is all been there, done that

You need a microscope to see how Candy Crush Jelly Saga is different from its predecessors. Will Soda Saga veterans really be won over by the "fresh" addition of jam and jelly queens?

Clash Royale is different. Far from a retread of what Clash fans already know (*cough*Boom Beach*cough*), this is something completely new. Fresh. Different. INVIGORATING.

The final verdict: While Candy Crush is almost guaranteed to do strong numbers, we like to vote for the curve ball. So, we reckon Clash Royale will be the next big thing. Prove us wrong, internet!