Candy Crush Friends Saga has surpassed $200 million in lifetime player spending across both the iOS and Google Play app stores, a report from app intelligence first Sensor Tower claims.
In total, the Candy Crush franchise has earned more than $1 billion so far this year.
Spending on Candy Crush Friends Saga is almost exactly split between iOS and Android, with 49 percent coming from iOS and 51 percent on Android. The U.S. is the top market for downloads, with some 12 million installs of the game since it launched in October 2018.
Friends Saga is the fourth installment in the Candy Crush franchise. It adds new characters that can be unlocked, new 3D animations, and hundreds more levels for gamers to play. Despite being the latest game in the series, however, it is not the highest grossing at present. As per Sensor Tower, the original Candy Crush Saga has earned more than $720 million so far this year. The report notes that:
“Using Sensor Tower’s Game Taxonomy to identify the top grossing Classic Match 3 mobile games in the United States in 2020 to date, we can see that Candy Crush Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga, and Candy Crush Friends Saga rank No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 for player spending, respectively. Jelly Saga, meanwhile, ranks No. 8. This shows the dominance that King has in the popular puzzle subgenre, which it has maintained for years. When looking at all Puzzle category titles, Candy Crush Saga ranks No. 1 for player spending, while Soda Saga ranks No. 5 and Friends Saga ranks No. 15.”
Not everyone is a big fan of the in-app purchase heavy approach to mobile gaming that Candy Crush helped bring to the fore. Nonetheless, it’s pretty tough to argue with success. There’s a reason why freemium games continue to flourish in the App Store.
Are you a Candy Crush player? Which of the games in the series do you while away the hours with? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
