King's Candy Crush Franchise Had a $391 Million Q1, Its Best Ever

The Candy Crush franchise achieved its highest-grossing first quarter in history during Q1 2019, generating $391 million in global gross revenue across the Apple App Store and Google Play. This performance represents a 2 percent year-over-year increase, underscoring the enduring commercial viability of King’s flagship mobile gaming series. Since 2014, the franchise has accumulated approximately $6.37 billion in total worldwide revenue and surpassed 1.34 billion downloads, excluding Android data from China.

The original Candy Crush Saga remains the primary driver of this financial success, contributing $251 million—or 64 percent—of the total quarterly revenue, marking a 7 percent year-over-year growth. In contrast, other titles within the series experienced mixed results. Candy Crush Soda Saga generated $87 million, representing 22 percent of the total, though this figure reflects a 30 percent decline compared to the same period in 2018. Similarly, Candy Crush Jelly Saga saw a 35 percent decrease, earning $15.5 million.

The newest addition to the portfolio, Candy Crush Friends Saga, provided a notable boost to the franchise's performance. In its first full quarter of global availability, the title generated $37.6 million, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the series' total revenue and significantly outperforming the older Jelly Saga. These findings are based on Store Intelligence estimates, which track mobile application performance metrics to provide insights into consumer spending trends within the global mobile gaming industry.