Az over on his blog contemplates his time spend playing Clash Royale vs his time spend playing FFXIV. My gaming time split is somewhat similar overall I think, were I’d say 50% of it is mobile games now (Clash of Clans and Clash Royale being 95% of that).
But unlike Az I don’t view CoC and CR as ‘time wasters’ like most mobile games, where the fun lasts maybe a few hours via cheap tricks and shiny nothing and then you move on. After EVE, Clash of Clans is my second-longest played game, with my first post about the game (at least using the CoC tag) going up in June of 2014 (damn…).
I’ve gone so far as to ask if CoC is an MMO, and almost 2 years after that post, I’m leaning even more towards that answer being “yes”, certainly by the now very lax definition most people have of an MMO. Hell, in a lot of ways, CoC is far more of a traditional MMO than most MMOs today, being how heavily it relies on ‘grouping’, the long progression and difficulty curve, and how often its updated.
Mobile gaming originally was viewed as ‘cheap’ gaming, something quick to fill the time by playing very simple games. I don’t think that still applies to the whole platform. Today, mobile has ‘real’ games like CoC/CR, along with the filler, just like a console has ‘real’ games along with a bunch of filler. Mobile games are designed around the limitations and advantages of the platform, sure, but good developers can and do still make top-notch games working around or taking advantage of the platform.
Plus as hardware continues to improve, along with the speed of the networks, I expect the mobile space to further expand and more ‘real’ games to push the boundaries. It’s only a matter of time before a game the size and cost of a GTA V is released on mobile, and very likely with it will come the next “$10 for a horse!?” controversy related to payment model. And I can’t wait!
Hardcore Casual 
While CoC is a great game and I still play it daily, calling it an mmo is really a stretch. Communication with other players is severely limited ingame, and there is no interaction with others possible outside of clancastle). Yes, I know wars exist, but you are still not doing things together, you are doing em side by side. There is no actual gameplay interaction.
Is chatting and planning together, and then watching someone execute an attack more or less interaction in a game than queuing up for a random dungeon with random people, never talking once, and easily winning to collect your loot for the 1000th time? (Let alone grinding out solo quests or the other 95% of MMO content that is best done solo with zero interaction?)
Sure, but you are comparing worst case wow with best case coc. You are comparing a clan activity with non guilded play. It is a comparison that is intentionally flawed. At its worst,both coc and, in your example, wow can be played solo. But in best case clan war vs organised raiding/mythic +, wow comes out far ahead.
Look at it from the point of an mmo you dont hate, eve. Do you really find a coc clan war having the same interaction as the war you are starting now with goons?
But how many WoW playres raid mythic+ (or run any kind of group content as a guild) as a % of the playerbase, vs how many take part in a clan war in CoC? I’d say easily most WoW don’t raid, and I’d also say most CoC are in a clan that goes to war?
Yes EVE is more an MMO than CoC, but EVE is more an MMO that any other MMO as well, so I’m not arguing that point at all. I wish more MMOs were like EVE, but since they are not, I think CoC pushing itself somewhat into that space is valid.