Candy Crush Saga is a free-to-play tile-matching video game first released by game developer King in April 2012. In the second quarter of 2025, the Candy Crush Saga mobile app grossed 288.48 million U.S. dollars, a new all-time high. A sweet success story Candy Crush Saga was first launched as a social game on Facebook before making its transition to mobile, where it quickly became one of the highest-grossing mobile games of all time. Despite over a decade on the market, the popularity of the match-3 title is still unabated. The games publisher King quickly released several sequels, including Candy Crush Soda Saga (2014), Candy Crush Jelly Saga (2016), and Candy Crush Friends Saga (2018). All these casual gaming app titles are financially successful but have never reached the heights of the original game. The casual gaming genre Casual games are one of the most popular gaming genres worldwide, consistently ranking among the most downloaded and highest-grossing gaming apps. In October 2024, Block Blast! was the most downloaded free casual gaming app worldwide, generating more than 24 million combined downloads across Google Play and the Apple App Store. My Supermarket Simulator was ranked second with 20 million global downloads. In 2022, the hypercasual simulation subgenre accounted for 6.6 percent of all gaming app downloads in the United States, ahead of word and hypercasual runner games.

Developed by King, Candy Crush Saga is a puzzle video game in which players swap different types of candy on a game board in order to match three or more of the same type. The game was first released on Facebook in 2012 and has since become available on most mobile operating systems and on browser. Despite being in its tenth year on the market, the original Candy Crush Saga is still the leading game in the series, generating global revenues of over 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2024.

Founded in Sweden in 2003, King is a video game developer that is most famous for its blockbuster gaming hit, Candy Crush Saga. The developer’s revenue reached almost 2.79 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, a far cry from revenue of less than 60 million U.S. dollars in 2010.

King of the developers In its early years in the social gaming world, King relied on in-game advertising and micro-transactions to generate revenue. The latter enabled players to make in-game purchases to improve their virtual world or help them past a particularly tricky level. However, in a move to win over its legion of fans, the company decided to remove all in-game advertising in June 2013 and focused on micro-transactions to bring in the money. This strategy seemed to pay off as the monthly active users of King continued to increase and peaked at 550 million users at the beginning of 2015. However, the MAU figure has been steadily falling in the ensuing years and the company was acquired in February 2016 by Activision Blizzard, famed for games such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch, in a deal worth almost six billion U.S. dollars. The publisher has since seen an upturn in its fortunes and registered record operating income of 740 million U.S. dollars in 2019.

Candy Crush Saga – King’s jewel in the crown The more than tenfold increase of King’s revenue between 2012 and 2013 is down to just one game – Candy Crush Saga. The colorful puzzle game became an overnight sensation and could be seen on smartphones across the world. While the game itself is free-to-play, users have the option of making in-game purchases to help them get past certain levels. This is where King’s micro-transaction revenue model truly paid off as player spending in Candy Crush mobile games worldwide reached over one billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Despite the fast-paced nature of mobile gaming and the new releases that hit our screens every day, Candy Crush Saga still remains one of the most popular free-to-play games on the market.

In 2025 to date, Candy Crush Saga was King's most popular app with approximately 651 million U.S. dollars in revenues across the Apple App Store and Google Play worldwide. Originally released as Facebook game in 2012, the match-three title is still very popular and also generated close to 65 million downloads in the measured period.

In June 2025, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store in Sweden. The action game title generated ******* U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Coin Master was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately ******* U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In July 2025, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app for iPad in the United Kingdom. The match-3 title generated more than 1.1 million U.S. dollars in revenues from iPad users. Royal Match was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately 639,000 U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store in the Netherlands. The match-3 game title generated *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Coin Master was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app for iPhone in the Netherlands. The match-3 game title generated more than *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from iPhone users. Clash of Clans was the second-most grossing gaming app title with approximately *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top grossing gaming app for iPhone in Belgium. The casual game title generated more than ** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from iPhone users. Coin Master was the second-most grossing gaming app title with approximately ** thousand U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app for iPad in the Netherlands. The casual gaming title generated approximately 548 thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from iPad users. Creative gaming platform Roblox was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately 172 thousand U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app for iPad in Belgium. The casual gaming platform generated approximately 144 thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from iPad users. Roblox was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately 114 thousand U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In June 2025, Pokémon Go was the top grossing gaming app for iPhone in Sweden. The AR game generated more than ******* U.S. dollars in revenues from iPhone users. Candy Crush Saga was the second-most grossing gaming app title with approximately ******* U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

A January 2022 survey found that about 31 percent of United States adults had heard a lot about the casual game Candy Crush Saga, and around 32 percent of respondents had heard "some" about it. The tile-matching puzzle game was released in 2012 and remained very popular, being one of the leading gaming apps by revenue for both Android and iPhone as of June 2022.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store in Norway. The casual game title generated ** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Coin Master was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately ** thousand U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top-grossing gaming app in the Google Play Store in Finland. The match-3 game title generated ** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users. Pokémon GO was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately ** thousand U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

In February 2025, Roblox was the top-grossing gaming app for iPad in Canada. The creative sandbox game generated more than 1.5 million U.S. dollars in revenues from iPad users. Candy Crush Saga was the second-most-grossing gaming app title with approximately 885,000 U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.

King is a video game developer that shot to fame in 2012 with its global hit, Candy Crush Saga. As a result of this game's roaring success, the company's average revenue per user has grown in recent years and is expected to reach ***** U.S. dollars by 2025.

In the second quarter of 2023, 238 million people accessed the mobile gaming company King's apps per month. Popular titles include Candy Crush Saga, Farmville Saga as well as Bubble Witch Saga, all of which are monetized through in-game purchases. King's gaming apps are available on Facebook as well as on mobile platforms. In 2014, King reached record the highest revenue in its history, having generated 2.26 billion U.S. dollars that year. Two years later, in February 2016, the company was acquired by Activision Blizzard, as part of a deal worth 5.9 billion U.S. dollars.

In May 2024, Brawl Star generated over *** million U.S. dollars of revenue in Spain, making this game the leader in terms of revenue generated from the Google Play Store. Coin Master ranked second, with *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues, while Candy Crush Saga ranked third with *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from Android users in Spain in the examined period.

In September 2022, Candy Crush Saga was the top grossing gaming app for iPhone in Norway. The match-3 game generated more than *** thousand U.S. dollars in revenues from iPhone users. Pokémon GO was the second-most grossing gaming app title with approximately ** thousand U.S. dollars in revenue during that month.