Five Years On, How Does Candy Crush Keep on Crushing It?

DooKey

DooKey

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 25, 2001
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In the crowded world of mobile gaming, the biggest surprise is that the first Candy Crush game hasn't been supplanted by its own successors. King's original Saga remains the company's biggest and best known property, and is now celebrating its fifth anniversary. It really is hard to believe such a simple game is still going strong after all of these years. Do we have any [H] players around here that can explain how this thing keeps going and going?

While there's much to celebrate for the studio, Knutsson admits that though the number of daily active users is "fairly stable", it's also "on a downward trend". Active users is arguably a better metric for success than total download numbers, as it reflects the number of players genuinely invested in a game, rather than those who download and forget it's in their app drawer.
 
I'll install it from time to time. It's a very quick and easy game. You can play a 3 minute round before an appointment or whatever. It doesn't require a time commitment, I can play it once a month if I want to and never miss a thing (no story, no 'dailies'). It's just a very simple game that's easy to pick up and play. Entertaining, too.

It's like at the office, when people are on a break, they'll pull out Solitaire or Minesweeper. Just a quick and easy game that you can play and not have to remember anything from the last time. You can start it after not playing for a year or two and not need any warm up or get used to it.
 
Ur_Mom said:
I'll install it from time to time. It's a very quick and easy game. You can play a 3 minute round before an appointment or whatever. It doesn't require a time commitment, I can play it once a month if I want to and never miss a thing (no story, no 'dailies'). It's just a very simple game that's easy to pick up and play. Entertaining, too.

It's like at the office, when people are on a break, they'll pull out Solitaire or Minesweeper. Just a quick and easy game that you can play and not have to remember anything from the last time. You can start it after not playing for a year or two and not need any warm up or get used to it.
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Yup. My wife plays it occasionally to relax. There's no pressure, it's mildly brain-stimulating, it's easy on the eyes, it doesn't require a lot of time, and there's no real downside.
 
I've managed to avoid it all these years. For a quick play lately, I usually fire up Super Mario Run, Clash Royale, or Clash of Clans. I've been playing CoC less and less, though, as Clash Royale seems to be more up my alley. But CoC was the very first freemium game I ever dropped money on, maybe about $60 worth over the past 3 years or so of playing it. With the amount of hours I have wasted in it, I think I got my monies worth (which is the most important thing to consider when paying for a game). Clash Royale is the second freemium game I have every put money into, but nowhere near as much as I did CoC. Super Mario Run I don't consider a freemium game, but I did pay for it after going through its "trial run". For $10, it's a little pricey for a mobile game, but it has a decent amount of gameplay and replayability in it (which many mobile games lack), plus it feels very polished. So, I'd say $10 was a fair price for it.
 
Three words:

Lowest Common Denominator


Personally I don't understand why casual games are a thing at all. If I'm not going to dedicate time, attention and being serious to a game, I don't play at all. I've never had any game on any phone I've owned.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Personally I don't understand why casual games are a thing at all. If I'm not going to dedicate time, attention and being serious to a game, I don't play at all. I've never had any game on any phone I've owned.
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Same reason I jerk off. It's quick, it's easy, no commitment. I don't want to put in time, attention, or get serious with it. Plus, I can do it anywhere. :D
 
GameLifter said:
I just downloaded it to try it out. Why not? lol!
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The acoustics of it fascinate me. I know the Vegas slot machines have spent years doing studies on sounds and flashy lights and how they addict people. Candy crush is so very similar. If someone played it behind a sheet, you'd think it was a casino game.

They figured it out.
 
VirtualMirage said:
I've managed to avoid it all these years. For a quick play lately, I usually fire up Super Mario Run, Clash Royale, or Clash of Clans. I've been playing CoC less and less, though, as Clash Royale seems to be more up my alley. But CoC was the very first freemium game I ever dropped money on, maybe about $60 worth over the past 3 years or so of playing it. With the amount of hours I have wasted in it, I think I got my monies worth (which is the most important thing to consider when paying for a game). Clash Royale is the second freemium game I have every put money into, but nowhere near as much as I did CoC. Super Mario Run I don't consider a freemium game, but I did pay for it after going through its "trial run". For $10, it's a little pricey for a mobile game, but it has a decent amount of gameplay and replayability in it (which many mobile games lack), plus it feels very polished. So, I'd say $10 was a fair price for it.
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I was stoked about Clash Royale when it came out, because I enjoyed CoC. But I had to uninstall it because I would just get so pissed. And it pissed me off that I got pissed off. It was the stupid fucking emotes where people would do the equivalent of corpse humping after beating you. I don't know what was worse, the stupid behavior or who easy I found myself getting wound up about it. It seemed better if I just stopped playing.
 
Verge said:
The acoustics of it fascinate me. I know the Vegas slot machines have spent years doing studies on sounds and flashy lights and how they addict people. Candy crush is so very similar. If someone played it behind a sheet, you'd think it was a casino game.

They figured it out.
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I don't play mobile apps with the sound on. It's always silent.
 
I played Candy Crush for a while - it was fun for a bit. My wife was obsessed with it. She doesn't play PC games or any other video games.
I still play a game called Osmo (basically a version of Snake). It's relaxing and doesn't take long.
 
I played for awhile...never forked any cash towards it. Just waited the time limits or played my rounds once a day or every other day.

Clash of Clans...now I can't imagine the money they have raked in during their prime! Lots of friends that would pay money to keep there base safe or build up their army so they could attack another enemy base.
 
Ease of use. Before cell phones became the focus of moblie gaming, cheap handheld games have always been popular and profitable. Having a cell phone means I don't have to carry around 5 different handhelds if I want to play poker, solitaire, blackjack, or any other style of simple handheld game. Im sure if those handhelds had a micropay option at the time, people would have thrown money at those as well.
 
percydaman said:
I was stoked about Clash Royale when it came out, because I enjoyed CoC. But I had to uninstall it because I would just get so pissed. And it pissed me off that I got pissed off. It was the stupid fucking emotes where people would do the equivalent of corpse humping after beating you. I don't know what was worse, the stupid behavior or who easy I found myself getting wound up about it. It seemed better if I just stopped playing.
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I do know what you mean, but I feel I do a pretty good job at brushing it off. I rarely ever rub my victories in their face unless they are being a poor sport. As far as their gloating, I tend to flip it with responses of smiles, laughs, or a "Thanks!". I figure, for me at least, it devalues what they are trying to do. And the latest version does allow you to silent them so you don't see their reactions.

I will say that based on my past experience with Clash Royale, I will not play the game before a doctors appointment nor right before bed. It gets my blood pumping, so my blood pressure reads higher than normal at the doctor's office and it makes it harder for me to fall asleep quicker. So during those times I will lay off the game.
 
I had high hopes for mobile gaming but I soon found out just about all of it was just vehicles for micro transactions. Hate that but at the same time how brilliant a business model. Pay 99c for the sword of all goodness to smash the devils that are keeping you from progressing. Super easy to pay via Google wallet (or paypal or whatever mechanism). I dare say most people fork it over. And in no time the development cost of the game is paid for and they are raking in the profits. When the margins start dropping because the game is getting old and people are losing interest, the profits have already funded the next game or sequel with even more micro transactions.
 
Only affiliation I had with Candy Crush was after I removed it's automatic installation on my Win10 install it continued to reinstall itself about 10 times over. Each time I would remove it again and a day or two later I would find it magically back on my PC. Most infuriating. Thankfully I don't see it any more since I went back to Win 7.
 
vegeta535 said:
And people wonder why they trying so hard to jam micro transactions down our throats.
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I have no issues with the micro transactions in Candy Crush.

First, the game is free (no double dipping)
Second, all the friends that are on level 700+ have never paid anything (not pay to win)
Three, it is easy to get power ups for free (no exclusive content)
four, power ups don't really seem to increase my chances of winning
 
silk186 said:
I have no issues with the micro transactions in Candy Crush.

First, the game is free (no double dipping)
Second, all the friends that are on level 700+ have never paid anything (not pay to win)
Three, it is easy to get power ups for free (no exclusive content)
four, power ups don't really seem to increase my chances of winning
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This is true but you expected this to stay in free to play games only? It was a matter of time til the AAA games went full retard and put it into their $60 game.
 
silk186 said:
I have no issues with the micro transactions in Candy Crush.

First, the game is free (no double dipping)
Second, all the friends that are on level 700+ have never paid anything (not pay to win)
Three, it is easy to get power ups for free (no exclusive content)
four, power ups don't really seem to increase my chances of winning
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I have a lot of mobile games that I've enjoyed, some have micro transaction but no require them to progress.
The worst is a game the starts out fun and you hit a point were you have to pay to progress
 
After trying out some Candy Crush I can see how it can get pretty addictive. It reminds me a lot of Bejeweled but with a really cool candy theme. The graphics are colorful and fun and the sounds effects give you a real sense of satisfaction when you make a long chain of candy matches. You can tell the game is designed around micro transactions and it tries to get you to spend money but so far I haven't felt like I needed to pay real money to progress in the game. Considering it's free to try I say it's worth a shot.
 
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