Cross-promotion in Candy Crush Soda Saga

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
King is using the high-traffic Candy Crush Soda Saga (CCSS) to aggressively cross-promote its less successful titles, such as Diamond Digger Saga and Papa Pear Saga, to non-paying users.
02
Cross-promotional ads in CCSS appear as early as level 12, which can be reached within 30 to 45 minutes of gameplay, indicating a strategy to leverage the franchise's gravitational pull to boost other games' user bases.
03
The cross-promotion strategy is specifically targeted at non-payers; testing showed that players who made an in-app purchase early in the game were not presented with these promotional ads.
04
King has successfully reduced its revenue reliance on the original Candy Crush Saga, which accounted for 51% of gross bookings in November 2014, down from 78% at the time of its March 2014 IPO.
05
Despite a 16% year-over-year decline in gross bookings and a 26% drop in adjusted EBITDA reported in late 2014, King grew its Daily Active Users (DAU) by 26% and Monthly Active Users (MAU) by 37%.
06
The global launch of CCSS on November 11, 2014, was supported by a massive multi-channel marketing campaign, including a Facebook initiative that reached 100 million people in seven countries on the first day.

Summary

The launch of Candy Crush Soda Saga in late 2014 served as a critical strategic pivot for King, functioning both as a high-profile attempt to replicate the success of the original Candy Crush franchise and as a vehicle for aggressive user base diversification. By leveraging the massive reach of the Candy Crush brand, King aimed to mitigate its historical reliance on a single title, which had previously accounted for over three-quarters of its gross bookings. The company utilized a multi-channel marketing strategy, including global publicity stunts, extensive social media saturation, and traditional advertising, to secure top-grossing positions across mobile app stores worldwide.

The analysis reveals that King employed a systematic cross-promotion strategy within the game to bolster its broader portfolio. Empirical testing demonstrated that non-paying users were exposed to interstitial advertisements for other King titles, such as Diamond Digger Saga and Papa Pear Saga, as early as level 12—typically within the first hour of gameplay. Notably, these promotional prompts were absent for users who made an early in-app purchase, suggesting a segmented approach to monetization and user retention.

This strategy reflects an application of portfolio theory, where the high-traffic Candy Crush Soda Saga acts as a funnel to drive engagement toward less prominent games. By re-engaging lapsed players and directing non-paying users to other properties, King sought to stabilize its long-term revenue streams and expand its overall user base. This shift marked a departure from the company’s 2013 stance of limiting internal cross-promotion, signaling a renewed commitment to managing its mobile gaming portfolio as an integrated ecosystem.