Candy Crush Saga Reaches $20 Billion Revenue Milestone, Reports Maker King

By Paul Sandle

LONDON – Candy Crush Saga, the popular matching game enjoyed by millions during their commutes, has achieved an impressive milestone of $20 billion in revenue since its launch in 2012, according to its developer, King. The company announced plans to soon offer levels up to 15,000 for its most dedicated players.

Originally launched on a website, Candy Crush transitioned to Facebook and eventually found its biggest success on mobile platforms, amassing over 5 billion downloads.

The game was a pioneer of the "freemium" model, allowing players to play for free while providing options to enhance their gameplay through purchases or by viewing advertisements for additional moves.

Tjodolf Sommestad, President of King, stated that Candy Crush Saga and other titles like Farm Heroes Saga demonstrate the potential for mobile games to maintain lasting appeal. "We’ve shown that it is possible to revive games that are years old and keep them relevant for a decade or even longer, breaking records even after so long," Sommestad remarked in an interview.

Todd Green, the general manager of Candy Crush, highlighted that the game is regularly updated to enhance player satisfaction, including fine-tuning elements like the bounce effect when candies land on the grid, as well as introducing new levels, including reaching the 15,000 mark.

For six consecutive years, Candy Crush has been the top-grossing franchise in U.S. app stores, reinforcing both the effectiveness of King’s strategy and the challenges faced by new game developers entering the market.

Green noted the high bar set for creating new games today, mentioning that while they are developing new titles, the process is significantly more challenging than in the past. "Candy Crush took us a few months to create, but we have invested a decade of development into it since then," he said.

King has been owned by Activision Blizzard since 2016, the well-known U.S. developer behind the Call of Duty series, which recently agreed to a $69 billion acquisition by Microsoft. In the second quarter, King contributed $747 million in net revenue, accounting for 31% of Activision’s total earnings.