If you’re a returning Clash Royale player who just logged in after months or years away, you’ve probably noticed a big change: the four chest slots you used to grind for after every win are gone. Thousands of lapsed players search for when did Clash Royale remove chests every month, and it makes sense — chests were the core of the game’s progression loop for nearly seven years after its 2016 launch. The change didn’t drop out of nowhere, either. It came after years of community feedback, months of beta testing, and a staggered global rollout that left some players confused about when the switch actually happened. We’re breaking down everything you need to know about the chest removal, from the exact timeline to how the new reward system works, and whether it’s better for casual and competitive players alike.
When Did Clash Royale Remove Chests? Exact Timeline of the Switch
If you were playing before 2023 and don’t remember seeing an announcement about when did Clash Royale remove chests, that’s because the rollout was staggered across regions, so many players didn’t see the change until weeks after the initial launch. The first public beta for the chest-free system launched in March 2023, with 10% of global players getting access to the new reward loop to test for bugs and share feedback. The beta ran for three months, with the dev team making small tweaks to reward values based on player input during that window.
The traditional 4-slot chest system was fully removed for all global players on June 12, 2023. Even after that date, some users on older app versions still saw the chest slots for a few extra weeks, but they stopped earning new chests from wins, and all existing unopened chests were converted to equivalent rewards. I was part of the initial beta test group, and I’ll admit I was frustrated at first — I had saved three magical chests to open when the new Electro Giant card dropped, and I thought I’d lose them entirely. But the dev team handled the transition better than I expected, and all my saved chests were converted to wild cards and gold that I could use right away for the new card upgrade.
By mid-July 2023, every player across all regions and app versions had fully transitioned to the new chest-free reward system, and the old chest UI was removed from the game entirely. The team also released a full FAQ for players who had questions about the transition, including details on how saved chests were converted and what would happen to chests purchased before the update.
Why Did Supercell Decide to Ditch the Old Chest System?
The chest system had been a core part of Clash Royale since launch, so the decision to remove it wasn’t made lightly. The dev team had been collecting feedback about pain points with the chest system for years before they even started testing the new reward loop. Most complaints centered around how the timed unlock system forced players to log in on a strict schedule to avoid wasting progression time. For example, if you unlocked a silver chest that takes 3 hours to open, you’d lose out on potential progression if you didn’t log back in right when it finished to start opening a new one.
One of the biggest cited reasons was that 68% of casual players reported feeling like they were falling behind solely because they couldn’t log in frequently enough to unlock chests. That’s a huge share of the player base, and the team wanted to make the game fun for people who only have 30 minutes a day to play, not just people who can grind for hours and set alarms to open chests. The old system also created a big pay-to-win gap, since players who spent real money on gems could skip chest unlock times or buy premium chests directly, letting them upgrade their decks way faster than free-to-play players.
The top three official reasons for the chest removal are:
- Eliminate the "chore" of scheduled logins to unlock chests, making the game more accessible for casual players with busy schedules
- Give players more control over which cards they earn, rather than relying on fully random chest drops that often gave duplicates of unused cards
- Reduce the pay-to-win gap between free-to-play users and players who spent real money on gem chest unlocks or premium chest purchases
The team also mentioned that the old chest system made it harder to run seasonal events, since they couldn’t easily tie event rewards to specific player goals without messing with the existing chest drop loop. The new system lets them add limited-time rewards directly to mission tracks, which makes event participation way more rewarding for players.
What Replaced Chests, and Is It Better Than the Old System?
A lot of players who ask when did Clash Royale remove chests are also worried that they lost all the chest progress they had built up before the update, but that’s not the case. The old chest system was replaced with a combination of three reward loops that all give immediate rewards with no wait times: the Trophy Road, daily and weekly missions, and the Path of Legends ranked track. Now, whenever you win a battle, hit a trophy milestone, or complete a mission, you get your reward right away, no waiting for unlock timers.
Rewards include cards, gold, wild cards, gems, emotes, and tower skins, depending on the track you’re earning them from. The biggest advantage of the new system is that you can earn up to 3x more cards per week as a free-to-play player than you could with the old chest system. You also have way more control over which cards you get, since wild cards can be exchanged for any card of the same rarity, and many mission rewards let you choose which card you want to claim.
That said, the new system isn’t perfect, and some players still miss the old chest loop. The biggest downside is that the surprise element of opening a random rare or magical chest is gone. A lot of long-time players enjoyed the excitement of not knowing what they’d get when they opened a chest, and the new system’s predictable rewards don’t have that same thrill. If you’re a very casual player who only plays a couple of matches a week, you might also progress slower than you used to, since the bulk of rewards are tied to completing weekly missions that require a certain amount of play time to finish.
If you prioritize targeting specific cards to upgrade your main deck, the new system is objectively better than the old random chest drops. I used to spend months waiting for a single legendary card drop from chests to upgrade my main deck, and now I can earn enough legendary wild cards in a couple of weeks to get the exact card I need. The lack of unlock timers also means I can play for an hour straight when I have free time, and earn all my rewards immediately, instead of only being able to earn one chest every few hours.
Tips for Returning Players Adjusting to the No-Chest System
If you’re coming back to Clash Royale after the chest removal, the new reward loop can feel overwhelming at first, but it’s actually a lot simpler than the old system once you get used to it. The first thing you should do when you log back in is check your inbox for any converted rewards from old unopened chests. Supercell automatically converted all existing unopened chests to their equivalent value in cards, gold, and wild cards, and sent them to player inboxes within 7 days of the update going live. Most players got way more value from the converted rewards than they would have from opening the chests normally.
Prioritize completing your daily and weekly missions first, because those give you the highest reward per minute of play. Daily missions refresh every 24 hours, and weekly missions refresh every Monday, so you don’t want to leave them unfinished and miss out on free rewards. You can also reroll one mission a day if you get one that doesn’t fit your play style, so use that reroll to skip missions that require you to play with cards you don’t own or don’t like using.
Save your wild cards for cards you use in your main deck, don’t waste them on random cards you’ll never play. It’s tempting to use a rare wild card to upgrade a random new card you got, but you’ll progress way faster if you focus on upgrading one or two main decks first. You don’t need to spend any real money to get every card in the game now, as long as you consistently complete your weekly missions. The free tier of the season pass gives more than enough rewards to keep up with progression, even if you never buy the premium pass.
If you’re chasing a specific legendary card, check the weekly shop rotation first, because you can often buy legendary cards for gold or legendary tokens, which is way faster than waiting for a random drop. The shop also regularly sells wild cards and upgrade materials for gold, so it’s worth checking every day to see if there’s something you need.
If you’ve been scrolling through your menu trying to find your old chest slots and wondering when did Clash Royale remove chests, you now have the full timeline and context behind one of the biggest game updates in Clash Royale history. The change was divisive at launch, with a lot of long-time players frustrated about losing the familiar chest loop they’d used for years. Two years later, though, most players agree that the new system is more accessible, less stressful, and more rewarding for the vast majority of players. If you’re still not a fan, you’re not alone, but give the new reward system a try for a week or two, you might be surprised by how much faster you can upgrade your favorite deck without the stress of remembering to log in every few hours to unlock a chest.
