Draft:Claw Crazy

Claw Crazy is a mobile app that allows downloaders to play real-life claw machines, coin-pushers, skeeball, and other virtual arcade games controlled remotely over a live video stream. Players can win prizes which are shipped directly to them.

Launching the app in 2020, it became available across all platforms as of 2024.

Company History
Claw Crazy formerly Claw Craziness was first launched in 2017 by Trevor Donner, a Michigan-based arcade gamer/social media influencer. Launching the Claw Craziness website with his father in 2020, the company's name, along with the name of the website and app were changed to Claw Crazy with the company's merger with Arcade Apps LLC in 2021.

Donner had earned a positive reputation over the previous years on social media as an expert of claw machines.

With over three million followers on Tik-Tok, Donner is well-known for offering how-to-win strategy concepts and useful tips to beat various arcade games.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increasing interest in virtual claw and other arcade game play having grown exponentially in recent years, the company saw an increase in growth of both revenue and online users.

In 2021, the company reported having 300K users ; in 2022 500K users, and as of late-2023, 1.1 Million users; 4 Million followers on social media, and over 250K users on the mobile app any minute an average day. To date, the mobile app has been downloaded across various platforms nearly 250,000 times, and has received over 500 user reviews. The app has a 4.6/5.0 rating on a popular mobile app review website.

The Game
Users download, install the mobile app from Google Play, App Store (iOS/iPadOS), and then create an account or login from a desktop on the Claw Crazy website. As of 2024, new accounts on the website receive some complementary digital tokens that can be used to play the machine of their choice.

Additional tokens can be purchased in lots from 50 to 2200 with a credit card through the mobile app or on the desktop version of the gaming website.

There is a revolving assortment of virtual games for users to play, which offer various prizes that range in value.

Prizes include items such as general household items to pop culture ephemera as well as kids candy; Lego toy sets, Roku streaming devices, DVDs, Rocketbook Reusable Notebooks, Funko Pop figures, Nintendo Switch gaming system, Apple Airpods and iPads. When a player wins a prize or accumulates enough digital tickets to select a prize they can visit the app or the website's store and redeem them and have their prize shipped directly to them, or trade in tickets for additional tokens.

Players can earn free tokens through the mobile app and on the Claw Crazy website by enrolling in a SMS mobile text program.

Claw machines played live through the mobile app operate as claw machines do in-person: users navigate the claw in a horizontal or vertical manner. The app allows users to maneuver the claw to the left or the right and then toward the back or the front of the machine before dropping to grab a sought-after prize.

Users of the mobile app can also watch other users on the app or website simultaneously play its games in real-time, and communicate with one another on the app Discord channel.