A short presentation outlining 8 characteristics that helped Candy Crush Saga on its way to one hundred million players.

1. How to get to 100 000 000 players
Presented at Mobile Future in Stockholm
November 7th, 2013
Lars Jörnow
VP, Growth

2. This is
Bragging warning!

3. Hat trick…n.1 cross-platform
The leader in cross-platform games
3
3

4. Explosive growth on all platforms
Rapidly growing number of players
Monthly Unique Players
225m
Mobile
108m
Facebook/ Web
21m
March
2012
March
2013
August
2013

5. Top Apps in the US (iPhone, August)
MARKET
PENETRATION
Source: Onavo Insights

9. What’s the
Word?
4 Pics 1
Word
Guess
Words

11. What’s the
Word?
4 Pics 1
Word
Guess
Words

13. Cat

15. Sweden

16. Let’s play: 4 pics and Mobile Success
Fun game format
+
Candy Crush Saga
characteristics
=

17. 8
7
Let’s Play!
6
5
8 levels!
4
3
2
1

18. PLAY AND WIN
Special for Mobile Future!

20. 3

21. 2

22. 1

23. Level #1

24. Level #1
Candy

25. Candy….yum!

27. Swedish candy inspiration
“Lakrits”
“Mjölkchocklad”
“Polkagris”

28. 8
7
6
5
Level 2!
4
3
2
1

30. 3

31. 2

32. 1

33. Level #2
$0

34. Level #2
Free(mium)
$0

35. Freemium Apps rule the World

36. Freemium
Our games are Free to Play, for everyone,
everywhere
4 categories of virtual goods (next slides)
The Design Vision is that the player can
complete the game without paying
~70% of players at the last level in Candy
Crush Saga mobile have never made a
payment!

37. Lives
Pay to save time
”I want to play
now”

38. Levels / content
Pay to not ask
friends (or FB
connect)
”I want to play,
but not pester my
friends”

39. Moves
Pay to help with
difficult levels
”I am SO
close....1 more
move and I beat
this level!”

40. Boosters
Pay to increase
chance of future
success
”I love this game.”
AND/OR
”I want to beat my
friends”

41. 8
7
6
5
Level 3!
4
3
2
1

43. 3

44. 2

45. 1

46. Level #3

47. Level #3
Accessible

48. Playing
Day 2
as a
habit

49. Play everywhere
Game State
- Progress
?

50. - Intuitive touchscreen game play
- Age-less gaming
- “Accidental
gamer”

51. 8
7
6
5
Level 4!
4
3
2
1

53. 3

54. 2

55. 1

56. Level #4

57. Level #4
(Cross)
platform

58. Cross Platform

59. FB - Cross-platform viral user loop
Desktop to
mobile
Mobile to app /
app store
App to
desktop

60. Play everywhere
Game State
- Progress
?

61. 8
7
6
This one is HARD,
like level 65 in Candy
5
4
Level 5!
3
2
1

63. 3

64. 2

65. 1

66. Level #5

67. Level #5
DEPTH

68. Depth in Candy Crush
400+
levels

69. Depth in Candies

71. Tools to Create Depth, fast

72. Depth
- Lots of levels
- Content depth
- No spike: constant growth
See next
slide

73. What do you mean “No Spike”?
iOS, U.S., Grossing

74. What do you mean “No Spike”?
Google Play, U.S.,
Grossing

75. 8
7
6
5
Level 6!
4
3
2
1

77. 3

78. 2

79. 1

80. Level #6

81. Level #6
Social

82. Social
- Don’t confuse Social with Multiplayer
- Needs to be fun alone…
…but even MORE fun with others
- Primarily collaborative, not competitive

84. 8
7
6
5
Level 7!
4
3
2
1

86. 3

87. 2

88. 1

89. 캔디크러쉬사가 Level #7

90. 캔디크러쉬사가 Level #7
Universal

91. What have we changed?
- Localized language and social
graph (Not culture)
- Candy Crush = universal gameplay
- Nothing else…we believe that
fantastic games have universal
appeal

92. 8
7
6
5
Final level!
4
3
2
1

94. 3

95. 2

96. 1

97. Level #8

98. Level #8
(Ever)green

99. Evergreen Gameplay Formats

100. Evergreen: Match-3 (1 billion hits on
Google)

101. Evergreen: Bubble Shooters

102. Evergreen: Tetris

103. Evergreen: Solitaires

104. Evergreen: Clickers

105. Evergreen: Characteristics
- Healthy mix of Skill and Chance
- Healthy mix of simplicity
(accessible) and complexity
(depth)
- “I’ll play just one more time”

106. Evergreen Gameplay Formats

107. Summary of Candy Crush Characteristics
1
2
Candy
5
3
Freemium
6
Depth
4
7
Social
CrossPlatform
Accessible
8
Universal
100,000,000 players
Evergreen

108. Keep crushing those
Candies
Thank you