Celebrating 20 Years of Gaming Excellence: King's Milestone Journey

King’s Iconic Match-3 Game, Candy Crush Saga, Announces Level 15,000 for Players
Candy Crush Saga has Reached $20 Billion in Revenue LTD
Candy Crush Franchise Now Exceeds 5 Billion Downloads LTD

King, Inc, the leading interactive entertainment company behind the world-famous Candy Crush franchise, marks a commitment to players as it hits the 20th anniversary in 2023. (Graphic: Business Wire)

LONDON & STOCKHOLM--()--King, the interactive entertainment company behind the world-famous Candy Crush franchise, reaffirms its commitment to players worldwide and hits new milestones as it marks its 20th anniversary. Headquartered in London, England and Stockholm, Sweden with offices across the globe, King's games, including Candy Crush Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Farm Heroes Saga, continue to captivate audiences worldwide.

King’s 20th year - an anniversary worth celebrating

King continues to be a cultural phenomenon. With more than 200 million monthly active players1 King's games resonate with players around the world. Its portfolio of mobile games bring players of all ages and backgrounds together in moments of magic.

Having been the top-grossing game franchise in the U.S. app stores for six years in a row, the Candy Crush franchise also has delivered more than $20 billion in revenue life to date and achieved over five billion downloads life to date. Continued investments in major brand partnerships have enabled King and Candy Crush to stay at the heart of pop culture.

Designed to be played in short bursts, Candy Crush Saga players have collectively completed more than five trillion levels. A quick fun fact: if you were to add the distance of all the swipes completed in Candy Crush Saga over the last five years, you’d almost travel around the world seven times over!

The success stretches beyond solo gameplay too. In 2023, Candy Crush Saga hosted a momentous All Stars tournament, revealing a $250,000 prize pot and limited edition rings from iconic celebrity Jeweler, Icebox. With more than 300 billion candies collected across the tournament, Candy Crush Saga crowned its ultimate All Stars champion following a live final at King HQ in London.

Continuing to deliver strong content for players

As King looks to the next 20 years, its focus remains on its players and bringing to life its mission of Making the World Playful.

Understanding that players crave new challenges and engaging, fresh content, King continues to harness the innovation and creativity of its team to develop exciting new adventures and experiences for its dedicated community of gamers.

For the iconic game Candy Crush Saga, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, King will soon be releasing Level 15,000 - a landmark moment. In the spirit of King culture and tradition the newest designers on the team get the honor of designing the milestone level.

Embracing the potential of new technologies

The future of mobile gaming will also be influenced by AI, with huge opportunities for this technology to enhance the way King’s games are developed and interacted with over the coming years. King is focused on harnessing these new technologies and exploring their capabilities to improve player experience, helping to make game design and gameplay more compelling, responsive and adaptive. For example, by optimising understanding of players’ interactions with our games and live game operations, AI can help our teams enhance the player experience by enabling highly relevant content and options for players.

Building a diverse culture that drives creativity

A key element of King’s success for the past 20 years has been its culture - the company prides itself on continually striving to create a caring and inclusive Kingdom where everyone can show up as their authentic selves. In recognition of this, King was acknowledged by both Newsweek and the Sunday Times in 2023, being placed among Newsweek’s Global Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces® and securing a place on The Sunday Times list of Best Places to Work in the UK.

Tjodolf Sommestad, President of King, said: "Reaching our 20th anniversary is a mark of the incredible passion and dedication of the entire King team to our mission of making the world playful. As we turn our attention to the future we'll continue to strive to make our games the best they can possibly be and give players more of what they want. With a history of success and a bright future ahead, King looks forward to delivering many more years of fun gameplay and memorable moments for our players.”

About King

With a mission of Making the World Playful, King is a leading interactive entertainment company with a 20-year history of delivering some of the world’s most iconic games in the mobile gaming industry, including the world-famous Candy Crush franchise, as well as other mobile game hits such as Farm Heroes Saga. Candy Crush has been the top-grossing franchise in U.S. app stores for the last six years, and King's games are being played by 238 million monthly active users as of Q2 2023.

King, a part of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), has game studios in Stockholm, Malmö, London, Barcelona and Berlin and offices in Dublin, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Malta. More information can be found at King.com or by following us on LinkedIn, @lifeatking on Instagram, or @king_games on Twitter.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves King’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the features and functionality of King’s games and the potential impact of AI on King’s games, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause King’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to King and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither King nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of King or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

© 2023 King.com Ltd. King, the King crown logo, Candy Crush, Farm Heroes Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga, the Tiffi character, Candy Crush Saga and related marks are trademarks of King.com Ltd and/or related entities.

1 As of Q2 2023

Contacts

King@teneo.com

Contacts

King@teneo.com