Candy Crush Saga soars above Angry Birds to become WORLD'S most popular game

The match-three game now has more than 15 million daily Facebook users worldwide

Candy Crush's success makes London-based owner King the world's most popular social game developer

More than 66 million people play King games worldwide on a daily basis - 14 million more than previous top-spot Zynga

By Victoria Woollaston

Published: 10:59 BST, 14 May 2013 | Updated: 13:38 BST, 14 May 2013









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Candy Crush Saga has overtaken Angry Birds to be world's most popular game hitting the top spot on Facebook, iOS and the Android Play store.

And its London-based developer King has now overtaken Zynga - creator of Farmville - to become the world's most popular social gaming firm.

King now has more than 66 million players worldwide, with more than 15 million of those playing Candy Crush on Facebook on a daily basis.

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Candy Crush Saga is the number one game on Facebook, and was the most popular game app on iOS and the Android Play store last month. London-based owner King also came third in terms of monthly revenue on the iOS store in March thanks to Candy Crush's success. Zynga - creator of Farmville - recently announced during its latest earnings call that its games now have 52 million daily users putting in second place behind King's 66 million



At the height of its popularity, Zynga's Farmville game had 82 million daily users, making Zynga the most popular social gaming company since 2009. Yet, thanks to the success of games such as Candy Crush Saga, London-based King has overtaken Zynga to take the top spot. It now has 14 million more users playing its games a day than Zynga



Candy Crush now has 9 million daily Facebook users. 69% of Candy Crush Saga players are women, and 300,000 of them are called Maria

The figures come from game-maker Zynga's most recent earnings call.

The team behind Farmville now sits in second place with 52 million daily players.

King's success is being attributed to the storming success of its Candy Crush Saga game.



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Candy Crush is the most popular game on Facebook and was the most downloaded game on iOS and Android in March and April.

It's also currently the third most popular free app on the Play store, behind behemoths Facebook and 해머캔디 Whataspp Messenger.

The aim of Candy Crush Saga is to match three of more sweets in a row to make them disappear.

You can create super sweets that can help you clear the board faster.

Cleared sweets appear in a candy cane at the side of the screen and you progress to the next level when the candy cane gets full.

Candy Crush is made by King and can be played on its website, as well as on Facebook.

Games can be synced, too, so you can start on one platform and continue on another.

The game was launched on mobile in November 2012 and became number one within six months, including 10 million downloads in December 2012 alone. 


Since the game launched, Candy Crush Saga players have spent the equivalent of 103,000 years playing the game.

And over 1 trillion candies have been crushed, which is more than the stars in the Milky Way.

Since 2011, Angry Birds by Rovio has stormed the mobile app charts, along with Imangi's Temple Run.

Zynga's Farmville became a Facebook phenomenon in 2009.

Yet Candy Crush is now more popular than these games across multiple platforms.



Rovio's Angry Birds game has consistently topped the game app charts since it launched in 2009. However, King's Candy Crush Saga has now overtaken Angry Birds to take the top spot on Facebook, iOS and Android, and its success has made London-based owner King.com the most popular social gaming developer across the world

Riccardo Zacconi is head of King.

He calls the game a 'perfect time-killer' and told The Sun: 'The mass appeal of Candy Crush is easy to understand.

You can play immediately, it's easy to pick up, doesn't take ages to learn and is intuitive.'

Although the app is free, the game has cash incentives that help players progress through the game.

Once a player loses five lives they become locked out of the game for half an hour.

Players can pay 69p to start playing immediately.

Buying a lollipop hammer removes chosen sweets and hammers costs £1.49.

If you want to eliminate an entire row, you can pay £27.99.



HOW TO PLAY CANDY CRUSH SAGA





Create rows or columns with three or more sweets of the same colour to remove them.

You can also create super sweets by combining four or five candies.

Super sweets give you added bonuses, for example the Striped Candy can remove an entire row or column of sweets when it's matched.

The Wrapped Candy is created when you match five sweets in a L- or T-shape. This means that you make two combinations of three sweets in each (one vertical and one horizontal), where the switched candy is part of both combinations at once.

The Wrapped Candy is a bomb, blowing up all sweets around it when it is matched.

The Colour Candy is created when five candies form a straight line.

This special sweet cannot be matched but you can activate it by switch it with another sweet.

All sweets of the same colour as the one you switched it with will be removed.

Special sweets can also be combined; Two Striped Candies will remove one row and a column, two Wrapped candies will make a bigger blast, while two Colour Candies will remove all sweets at once with an All Clear effect.

Combine a Striped Candy with a Wrapped Candy to create a Mega-Candy.

Mega-Candies will remove three rows and three columns.

Combine a Striped Candy with a Colour Candy to create a Super Stripe.

The Super Stripe will create striped candies of all candies of the same colour as the original striped candy in the combination.

For example, if you combine a yellow Striped Candy and a Colour Candy, all yellow sweets will become striped and detonate.

You proceed to the next level when you have filled the candy cane to the left by crushing candy.

All special sweets will follow you to the next level.

When the time is up, all your special sweets will detonate in the Sugar Crush, giving you bonus points.



Alternatively, players can ask other players and Facebook friends to help them progress through levels using bonuses and point sharing.

Zacconi claims that more than 90 per cent of users who finish Candy Crush do so with help from friends, or by themselves, and don't need to buy extras and help.

According to market research from App Annie, Candy Crush is not just popular, it's a money-maker too.

It is the top grossing game, meaning it has the highest revenues in the UK, the US and other territories for the iPhone, iPad and Android.

Alex Dale, the chief marketing officer of King told The Telegraph: 'This is a very competitive business,' he says.

'There are hundreds of thousands of games out there. We need to be constantly evolving.

If you look at games like Tetris, it has been going for more than 20 years.'