Candy Crush sees more play than ever since Activision-Blizzard’s 2016 acquisition

Activision Blizzard announced today as part of its latest earnings report that King’s mobile games had 273 million monthly active users in Q1 2020.

King is behind the hit mobile puzzle franchise Candy Crush, which debuted in 2012 with Candy Crush Saga. That free-to-play title still remains one of the most popular mobile games, and it has three sequels: Candy Crush Soda Saga, Candy Crush Jelly Saga, and Candy Crush Friends Saga.

Activision Blizzard notes that King’s games saw more rounds played than in any quarter since the publisher bought the studio in 2016 for $5.9 billion. Not only are a lot of people playing King’s games, but they are playing them a lot.

For each month in the quarter, King saw year-over-growth in MAUs. That rocketed to double digit growth in March, which is when much of the U.S. adopted shelter-in-place policies.

Bored social distancing practitioners are looking for something to do, and most of them have phones. That makes the free-to-play Candy Crush games an attractive choice for entertainment. Many people already had a Candy Crush game installed on their phones, so access was easy. But the pandemic won’t last forever, and King will need to find a way to hold onto these players.