Candy Crush Saga hits $20 billion revenue milestone, maker King says

Activision Blizzard

27/09/2023 24:01

By Paul Sandle
       LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Candy Crush Saga, the
matching game played by millions on their commute, has reached
$20 billion in revenue since its 2012  launch, maker King said,
adding that it would soon release levels up to 15,000 for the
most dedicated players.
    First appearing on a website, it shifted to Facebook and
then mobile, where it took off and has now been downloaded 5
billion times.         
    It pioneered the "freemium" model, in which the game is free
but players can spend money to boost their performance or can
watch ads to gain moves.
    King President Tjodolf Sommestad said Candy Crush Saga and
its other titles like Farm Heroes Saga showed that mobile games
could have enduring appeal. 
    "We've proven to ourselves and to the industry that it is
possible to reignite games that are years old and keep them
relevant for a decade or longer, and break records even a decade
in," Sommestad said in an interview.
    Todd Green, Candy Crush general manager, said the game was
constantly updated to make it more satisfying, from optimising
the tiny bounce when candies land in the grid to adding new
levels, including the 15,000 milestone.
    Candy Crush has been the top-grossing franchise in U.S. app
stores for the last six years, a fact Sommestad said underlined
both the success of King's strategy and the challenge for new
game developers.
    "We do have an effort to build new games, but the bar is
very high and it takes a lot to launch a new game nowadays," he
said. "Candy Crush took us a few months to build but we added 10
years of development after that."
    King has been owned since 2016 by Activision Blizzard
 ATVI.O , the U.S. company behind "Call of Duty" that has agreed
a $69 billion takeover by Microsoft  MFST.O . King contributed
$747 million in net revenue in the second quarter, 31% of
Activision's total. 
    
        

 (Reporting by Paul Sandle
Editing by Bill Berkrot)
 ((paul.sandle@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6843; Reuters
Messaging: paul.sandle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))