Bejeweled, a video game chasing Solitaire, hits 25 million copies sold
It’s not often that video games hit the milestone of 25 million. A handful of titles have gotten there, such as Pokemon, The Sims, Windows Solitaire, and Tetris. Bejeweled is joining those ranks today, according to its developer, PopCap Games.
The Seattle company says it has sold more than 25 million copies of its jewelry puzzle game across a bunch of platforms, ranging from online games on the PC to mobile phones. The game first debuted in 2000 as a downloadable game on Microsoft’s MSN web site. It was originally called “Diamond Mine,” but Microsoft suggested the game be renamed Bejeweled, since there was already a game called “Diamond Mines.”
Now the company estimates the game and its sequel, Bejeweled 2, have been played more than 6 million hours. For that reason, PopCap is declaring the game the most popular paid game of the 21st century.
Jason Kapalka, chief creative officer and the original designer of Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2, said in an interview that the company got no takers in the early days of online gaming. It offered the game for $60,000. The game play was dead simple. You simply look at a grid of jewels, swap adjacent gems, and try to align three gems of the same type in a row.
“I’d really like it to become known in the culture as the new Solitaire,” Kapalka said, “where people play it just to kill time.”
The audience of gamers who have played the game, including its free versions, is estimated at 350 million to 450 million. At least 350 million copies have been downloaded from web sites, while tens of millions of copies have been installed on mobile phones. Revenues from the 25 million units sold have crossed $300 million.
Those revenues have helped fuel an expansion for PopCap, which has more than 200 developers worldwide now. Kapalka said the company is working on a new version of Bejeweled, though it remains to be seen if that one will be called Bejeweled 3.
For the past three years, Bejeweled has been ranked among the top three “family entertainment” software titles sold at retail. Platforms include the web, PCs, Macs, mobile phones, Xbox, PlayStation, handhelds, Blackberrys, iPods, iPhones, in-flight airline games, on-demand TV systems in hotels, and even scratch-off lottery tickets.
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About the Author, Dean Takahashi
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.