WEBVTT - Candy Crush's Sweet Success 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:05.640 Candy CRUSH's sweet success fifteen years in the ubiquitous mobile 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:10.760 game is still Crushing It by Alana Oakin Read aloud 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:17.200 by Mark Lidorf. Johanna Shurikey doesn't time travel anymore. The 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.880 now thirty four year old had been playing Candy Crush 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.080 saga for years when she experienced the stuff of grad 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.520 school nightmares. Its finals week and I woke up in 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.280 the morning to a startle. I missed a study session 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.040 for my final exam because my phone alarm never went off. 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.239 This was the result of what many gamers refer to 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.760 as time traveling, resetting the date on a device to 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:43.120 acquire more lives or other time locked bonuses. At the time, 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:47.000 Candy Crush gave players five new lives every day, so 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.960 dedicated players such as Shurikey would simply change the time 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.480 and keep right on crushing. That did occasionally have the 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.640 unintended side effect of messing with alarms and calendars. It 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.600 certainly messed with Shurakkeie. I thought this is the actual 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.240 definition of an addiction, she says. I was like, I 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.399 need to go cold turkey. I hate this game, and 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.920 I deleted it off my phone about three years later, 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:16.680 Shurooki redownloaded the app, and it's remained what she calls 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.080 a guilty pleasure ever since, without causing her to miss 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.320 any more important meetings. Candy CRUSH's longevity has made it 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.360 something of a time traveler itself. Many games, especially the 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.160 ones on our phones, spike in public interest and then 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.960 fall just as sharply. When was the last time you 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:38.240 heard about Kim Kardashian Hollywood, a twenty fourteen mobile game 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:40.959 estimated to have netted more than fifty million dollars in 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:45.039 its first four months. Candy Crush, by contrast, has stayed 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:49.360 remarkably popular over the past fifteen years. On public transit, 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.080 at sporting events, even sitting next to a couple on 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.240 a first date, you can still reliably catch a glimpse 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.520 of someone playing the game. Candy Crush has come to 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.520 mean thing people do on their phones, as in the 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.360 case of a less than flattering cultural meme about on 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:09.680 duty police officers distracted by smashing suites. David Curry, data 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.440 editor at analytics platform Business of Apps, estimates the game 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.320 had eighty one point five million monthly active users, one 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.920 hundred and ninety point five million installs, and in app 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.640 revenue of eight hundred and seventy six point five million 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:28.079 in fiscal year twenty twenty five. Swedish publisher King declined 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.880 to provide current internal figures. In twenty twenty three, the 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.880 game crossed an extraordinary threshold, with King reporting a lifetime 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.360 revenue milestone of twenty billion dollars and five billion installs 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.080 across its Candy Crush franchises, which include spin offs like 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:48.440 Soda Saga and Jelly Saga. It consistently ranks among the 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.919 highest grossing mobile games year after year. I've been playing 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.640 video games my whole life, and recently went back to 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.640 school to study game design, making my own small narrative games, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.200 and researching what makes games of all sorts tick. When 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.760 Candy Crush first appeared on the scene, I was fascinated, overwhelmed, 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.280 and maybe even a tad squeamish about it. The app 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.320 seemed to feature only the barest elements of what makes 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.840 a game a game. It turns out that may have 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.320 been the secret to its success all along. King brought 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.200 out the initial iteration of Candy Crush on its website 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.240 in twenty eleven. It had released hundreds of games in 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.560 the decade prior drawing on player data to fine tune 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.639 subsequent releases. Then the social web took off. When we 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.800 were trying to understand how to crack Facebook, we essentially 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:41.080 started six different projects in parallel. King co founder Sebastian 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.119 Nutsen told CNBC in twenty twenty the company had one 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.800 really big dud it dispensed with shortly after launch, as 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:51.160 well as a few mediocre games that we were quite 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:55.800 happy with. The Lessons about mechanics, player retention, and level 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.600 design would become the blueprint for Candy Crush Saga, which 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.320 was also are released on mobile platforms to capture the 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:06.840 growing smartphone market. In December twenty thirteen, Candy Crush had 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:11.000 ninety three million daily active users worldwide, according to King's 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:15.480 twenty fourteen initial public offering filing. About that time, King 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.520 also filed and then withdrew, an application to trademark the 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:23.039 term candy in the US. Its continued popularity has much 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.080 to do with the near hypnotic simplicity of the gameplay. 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.520 Candy Crush operates according to match three mechanics, a classic 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.560 video game genre that evolved from games such as Tetris. 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.680 The goal of Candy Crush is to match enough colorful, 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.160 sweet shaped tiles within a limited set of moves so 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.119 that they blow up and vanish, thereby clearing the board 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.800 and progressing to the next level. The game is turn based, 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.400 meaning players can pick it up or put it down 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.800 with no consequence, unlike say, Call of Duty or the 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.880 Legend of Zelda, where you're required to react to whatever 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.680 the game throws at you in real time. That makes 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.279 it ideal to play while you're riding the train, or 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.960 hanging out on the couch or avoiding work. Players jumped 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.560 at the chance to discuss their candy crushing habit with 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.599 me the past few months. A mother of two in Florida, 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.200 a YouTuber in Romania, a professor in upstate New York 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:19.000 whose arthritis makes fine motor activities difficult. Unfortunately, a candy 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.359 crushing cop was harder to come by. Nearly all of 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:27.000 them expressed the same sentiment, unprompted they don't identify as gamers. 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.000 Candy crush to them is the exception to the rule 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.160 enticing not because of its similarities to the other bits 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.359 of culture they consume, but because of its differences what 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:40.960 it offers in opposition to books or movies or social media. Shurikei, 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.680 the former Time traveler, describes the game's draw as providing 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.359 a feeling of satisfaction for having completed a task. My 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.159 background is in speech pathology, and so a lot of 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.360 my work has been with humans, she says. There was 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:56.440 never a component of my job where I could look 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.359 at a list and be like, yep, check finished. So 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.120 I love you accomplish a level in Candy Crush and 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.119 it's like awesome, on to the next. It's a unique 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.440 pleasure that way. That's not how it feels to scroll 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:14.240 Instagram or TikTok, those bottomless, frictionless maws. This reflects King's 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:18.400 intentions the game fits flexibly into the gaps in people's days. 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.480 Paula Ingvar, the general manager for Candy Crush Saga, wrote 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.719 in an email to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, noting the game's ability 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.440 to produce the satisfaction of making progress with small wins. 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.880 Another aspect of the game's allure is how free of 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:38.400 cultural context it is. It's distinctively non place based, non gendered, 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:42.479 non racialized, says David Neeborg, a professor of Media and 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.200 Platform Studies at the University of Toronto, who researches Candy 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.160 Crush and games like it, The appeal can be so 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.920 broad you can have somebody playing on the subway in 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:56.080 sount Ballow, but also in Tokyo or in Lagos. Just 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.080 because Candy Crush seems simple doesn't mean it was easy 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.440 to develop. Making a game feel organic and intuitive is 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:06.560 surprisingly complicated, the result of thousands of failed experiments and 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.520 exceptional design. This is particularly true if the goal is 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.080 to have a wide breadth of players, many of whom 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.920 might not ever have played a digital game before return 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:20.520 day after day, and ideally spend money. Candy Crush helped 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:25.040 popularize the now ubiquitous freemium model, in which players download 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.720 a game free of charge and pay for add ons 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:31.520 to make beating levels easier. Gold Bars candy crushes in 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.360 game currency, can be purchased in packs of ten for 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.240 a dollar ninety nine or fifty for seven dollars in 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.240 ninety nine cents. An extra life runs you four of 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.520 those gold bars, while sets of additional moves start at 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.960 ten bars. According to trend intelligence firm Quantum Run, only 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.880 about four percent of players ever spend money in the game, 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.640 so the in app revenue numbers come from a small 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.120 pool of users. You want to have many players, and 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.880 you want to have people playing habitually. Kneeborg said, that's 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.720 an important game design mechanic. In other words, the gameplay 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.559 of Candy Crush is fashioned to supply a fine tuned 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:12.000 degree of difficulty to ensure players keep playing Too easy 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:16.080 and it becomes rote devoid of dopamine, delivering novelty. Too 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:20.280 tough and you might quit in frustration. Achieving this balance 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:24.480 has kept King on relatively solid footing through two major acquisitions. 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.360 Gaming giant Activision Blizzard bought the studio for five point 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.679 nine billion dollars in twenty sixteen. Then Microsoft bought Activision 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.600 Blizzard for sixty eight point seven billion dollars in twenty 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.960 twenty three. Along with Minecraft studio Mojang, King is now 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:45.520 situated under Microsoft's struggling Xbox division. Both studios have increasingly 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.800 become platforms and are our largest bi monthly active players. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.720 Xbox Chief executive Officer Asha Sharma said in a statement 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.800 announcing a corporate restructuring on July sixth. Still, King laid 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.839 off two hundred employees in July twenty twenty five, and 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.760 more Xbox layoffs are on the Horizon. King continues to 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.480 play an important role in Xbox's strategy, the company said 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.880 in a statement to BusinessWeek, especially as mobile is two 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.760 thirds of the market and where the next generation plays. 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.760 Candy Crush Saga remains King's golden goose, and under activision, 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.120 the company has prioritized its older titles more heavily, says 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:26.160 Curry from Business of Apps. Even with increased competition, it 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.559 remains a popular title that many gravitate towards, especially older users. 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.920 On Reddit and the official King community forum, players compare 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.680 progress in thoughts on the game. One consistent complaint is 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.320 the perceived imbalance between strategy, randomness, and payment. Some longtime 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.840 players maintain that later levels are made overly difficult on purpose, 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:51.520 impossible to solve without additional moves or boosters. Such bonuses 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.640 can be gained through in game challenges or by watching ads, 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.840 but players argue that by far the easiest path is 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.400 to buy them, resulting in a feeling of pay to 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:04.680 win that belies actual skill. We don't design levels to 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:08.600 push people into making purchases. Ingvar wrote challenge is part 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:12.120 of what has kept Candy Crush engaging for nearly fifteen years, 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.400 but challenge and fairness are different. She also noted King 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:21.479 continually tests and rebalances its games, listening closely to player feedback. 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:24.840 When I picked up Candy Crush again this summer, it 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.559 felt as though I was playing two games simultaneously. There 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.679 was the surface level one, matching colors and clearing as 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.720 many levels as possible, and a sort of meta one. 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.000 I wanted to see how far I could get without 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.800 straying from the base gameplay, without relying on extra lives 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:43.920 or moves. The first few dozen levels were a breeze, 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:47.240 presumably as I was onboarded as a new player. I 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.640 found it easy to enter a gentle fugue state of swipes, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:55.480 explosions and victorious micro vibrations emanating from my phone. Then 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.200 came periodic spikes and difficulty that made ignoring those upgrades 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.760 more difficult. I could only get so far on my 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.160 own unpracticed steam, which actually made me want to try 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.840 even harder. Candy Crush Saga now features twenty three thousand 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.320 plus levels, with dozens more added each week. King hosts 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.200 an annual tournament called Candy Crush All Stars, which this 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.079 year culminated in a live finale in London. And one 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.160 million dollars in prize money. You can watch a highlight 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.960 reel of contestants who qualified remotely at events played by millions. 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:30.680 Many of these hopefuls are players who've reached what the 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:35.520 company calls end of content, clearing all available levels. The 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.960 finalists seem earnest and a little nerdy wholesome in a 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.680 way that aligns with the cheery game. At one point, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.360 a contestant is bleeped out, seemingly for saying holy crap. 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.720 The competition looks intimate and ritualistic, even when surrounded by 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.440 the trappings of a larger than live game show. The 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.360 players hunch over their phones, their faces locked in swiping 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.000 in their well practiced choreography. Just like watching the utuboe 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.439 who create content about Candy Crush, you get the impression 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.480 that their tactics are less about making second to second 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.719 moves and more about the thirty thousand foot view at 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:14.120 which all patterns become legible. There are, also, perhaps inevitably, 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:18.079 Candy Crush ASMR videos that bypass the logic centers of 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.839 the brain entirely. The point of Candy Crush isn't to 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.160 ever finish it. It's to stay there. Forever in that 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.600 bright and soothing world, swiping your finger across the screen 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.360 in pursuit of the next surge of satisfaction. Fifteen years 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.680 from now, who's to say we won't all still be 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:35.880 crushing candies.