Candy Crush Saga
Candy Crush Saga is the most popular mobile game in the U.S. after a dramatic comeback in the third quarter. As the mobile game crossed its fifth anniversary this week, its tally has crossed 2.73 billion sugary downloads.
Candy Crush Saga is the most popular mobile game in the U.S. after a dramatic comeback in the third quarter. As the mobile game crossed its fifth anniversary this week, its tally has crossed 2.73 billion sugary downloads.
In the third quarter that ended September 30, the match-3 game generated more than $250 million in revenue, up 97 percent from the same period a year ago, according to measurement firm Sensor Tower. More than 1 trillion game rounds have been played in the game since its launch, and 350 trillion candies have been swiped to date. At this rate, the $5.9 billion that Activision Blizzard paid to acquire King in 2015 looks like a deal.
Riccardo Zacconi, CEO of King, has been there from the beginning. Candy Crush Saga was one of 200 games that King created on its skill-based web site. The company began methodically converting those games to run on the Facebook Desktop, and the ones that were successful were converted to mobile. Candy Crush Saga did well on Facebook, but it really took off on mobile. It has been in the top-ten grossing apps for four years now. King continuously updates the game, which has 2,800 levels now.
Candy Crush Saga has a social media fan base of 80 million. That’s not bad for a game made with a tiny team led by Sebastian Knutsson in Stockholm, Sweden. King now has more than 2,000 employees worldwide and more than 293 million monthly active users. And it has spun out new games like Candy Crush Soda Saga and Candy Crush Jelly Saga. It even has its own game show. For the fifth anniversary, King launched a bunch of in-game rewards for players.
credit : venturebeat.com
