Why Candy Crush Saga Is So Successful

These days everyone is playing Candy Crush Saga and the game has managed to achieve something that is rare in the industry. It's managed to attract a huge variety of demographics a

These days everyone is playing Candy Crush Saga and the game has managed to achieve something that is rare in the industry. It's managed to attract a huge variety of demographics and most notably has been able to tap into the middle aged women demographic that has had game publishers licking their lips for years trying to break into this market.

So what is it about the puzzle matching experience of Candy Crush Saga that made it possible to assume to reach this level of success? There are a few important elements that I think we're key to the success, coming from someone who is not only a gamer but also very interested in game design.

With all the games similar to Candy Crush floating around on both the App Stores I decided to tackle this question and analyse the elements that has driven the game to the top despite not being the first in it's genre.

Are you hooked on Candy Crush? What are your thoughts about the game? Be sure to share!

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Candy Theme

A Key Ingredient To Candy Crush Success

How does candy play an important role in the Candy Crush experience? Not only is it because everybody loves candy but this theme makes it easy to discuss the game with others. It's hard to discuss more violent games in public (nobody other than teenagers likes to brag about their latest Call of Duty kills).

Everybody knows candy regardless of their age and it's appropriate for every demographic. This gives the game a huge appeal as opposed to limiting it a certain section of the market. The candy title also removes some of the stigma about games that they have to be violent or full of action, which was a key to breaking into the untapped middle aged and older women demographic that had been untouched for so long.

Competition & Social Integration

You can deny it all you want but humans love competition, especially when it's friendly. Candy Crush Saga nails this element with it's countless levels and it's Facebook connectivity.

Not only do you get updates through Facebook about your friends latest triumphs in the Candy Crush universe but people love to brag about their accomplishments. This has a two fold effect have both ensuring the game gets out their through word of mouth but also pushes sales as players want to buy power-ups and lives to get ahead of friends.

While most people are hiding their Candy Crush Saga updates these days because it got so out of control (depending on your group of friends anyway), this social promotion was a key to the early days of the games growth.

The final important element of Candy Crush Saga is something it shares with all other popular games. This is the sense of advancement and evolution of mechanics that the game has.

The pace that Candy Crush unleashes new mechanics to you is important because it gives you a long term interest in the game. You aren't playing 500 levels that are exactly the same, the basic mechanic never changes but additional challenges and elements are introduced often enough that you can't use a single strategy throughout and it requires adopting a changing strategy.

The advancement side comes from the way that the level screen is shown, it shows exactly where you can go and slowly moving through the levels does give you that sense of accomplishment, showing you where you have been. A key to this is the syncing between multiple devices that lets you play from all sorts of locations.

Updated: 08/30/2019, Seelyon

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