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Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Candy Crush Celebrates 10 Years
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Activision Blizzard’s King franchise is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Candy Crush Saga, the original and largest mobile-gaming title in the Candy Crush franchise. As many as 12 new audio tracks, which were recorded with a live orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London, will be available for players to enjoy in-game, along with all the other events and content planned.
Candy Crush Saga has been downloaded more than three billion times since it was launched in 2012, becoming the most downloaded casual match game of all time. More than five trillion levels have been completed since its release.
Candy Crush enters its second decade in strong health, with over 200 million monthly active users (MAU) and with player investment at record levels. King’s development, commercial and analytics teams are working on a strong pipeline of content and initiatives expected to delight the community and drive further growth in the coming years.
Since its acquisition by Activision Blizzard in 2016, King has gradually introduced in-game advertising into the game. More recently, King started using Candy Crush as a staging ground for paid brand activations and celebrity tie-ins.
In the third quarter, King’s (40.3% of revenues) revenues of $692 million increased 6.1% year over year. MAUs were 240 million as of Sep 30, 2022, down 2% year over year.
King continues to introduce more player-versus-player features within Candy Crush, fueling engagement and player investment. In the third quarter, time spent within Candy Crush grew year over year for the fifth successive quarter. Candy Crush was the top-grossing game franchise in the U.S. app stores1 for 21 quarters in a row.
In June, King acquired Pelatrion, an artificial intelligence software company with a no-code machine learning operations platform developer, enabling users to train, design and manage deep learning models, at speed and at scale, in the cloud.
The Pelatrion acquisition will likely help Activision’s King accelerate the use of AI and ML in its gaming platform. It will also enable the company to launch innovative game developments and designs and improve live operations capabilities.
The move is expected to help Activision to improve its already strong gaming portfolio.
Activision Blizzard Faces Stiff Competition in the Gaming Industry
Great prospects in the industry also bring intensifying competition for this currently Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) player from the likes of Take Two Interactive Software (TTWO - Free Report) , Nintendo (NTDOY - Free Report) and Electronic Arts (EA - Free Report) .
Take-Two’s publishing label 2K and Marvel Entertainment recently publicized the release of Marvel’s Midnight Sun. The tactical role-playing game, created by the Civilization and XCOM franchise developer Firaxis Games, is set to be launched on Oct 7.
Nintendo, which has several hit franchises like Brain Age, Kirby, Super Smash Bros, Pokémon and Mario, among others to its credit, recently announced the release of Mario Strikers: Battle League, available on Nintendo Switch.
Electronic Arts unveiled that new gameplay features will be made available in Madden NFL 23. The game will be launched on Aug 19, worldwide. EA’s Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games unveiled the next chapter of the popular Star Wars action-adventure series Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, scheduled to be released sometime in 2023.
Image: Bigstock
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Candy Crush Celebrates 10 Years
Activision Blizzard’s King franchise is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Candy Crush Saga, the original and largest mobile-gaming title in the Candy Crush franchise. As many as 12 new audio tracks, which were recorded with a live orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London, will be available for players to enjoy in-game, along with all the other events and content planned.
Candy Crush Saga has been downloaded more than three billion times since it was launched in 2012, becoming the most downloaded casual match game of all time. More than five trillion levels have been completed since its release.
Candy Crush enters its second decade in strong health, with over 200 million monthly active users (MAU) and with player investment at record levels. King’s development, commercial and analytics teams are working on a strong pipeline of content and initiatives expected to delight the community and drive further growth in the coming years.
Since its acquisition by Activision Blizzard in 2016, King has gradually introduced in-game advertising into the game. More recently, King started using Candy Crush as a staging ground for paid brand activations and celebrity tie-ins.
Activision Blizzard, Inc Price and Consensus
Activision Blizzard, Inc price-consensus-chart | Activision Blizzard, Inc Quote
King Franchise Aids Top-Line Growth
In the third quarter, King’s (40.3% of revenues) revenues of $692 million increased 6.1% year over year. MAUs were 240 million as of Sep 30, 2022, down 2% year over year.
King continues to introduce more player-versus-player features within Candy Crush, fueling engagement and player investment. In the third quarter, time spent within Candy Crush grew year over year for the fifth successive quarter. Candy Crush was the top-grossing game franchise in the U.S. app stores1 for 21 quarters in a row.
In June, King acquired Pelatrion, an artificial intelligence software company with a no-code machine learning operations platform developer, enabling users to train, design and manage deep learning models, at speed and at scale, in the cloud.
The Pelatrion acquisition will likely help Activision’s King accelerate the use of AI and ML in its gaming platform. It will also enable the company to launch innovative game developments and designs and improve live operations capabilities.
The move is expected to help Activision to improve its already strong gaming portfolio.
Activision Blizzard Faces Stiff Competition in the Gaming Industry
Great prospects in the industry also bring intensifying competition for this currently Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) player from the likes of Take Two Interactive Software (TTWO - Free Report) , Nintendo (NTDOY - Free Report) and Electronic Arts (EA - Free Report) .
Take-Two’s publishing label 2K and Marvel Entertainment recently publicized the release of Marvel’s Midnight Sun. The tactical role-playing game, created by the Civilization and XCOM franchise developer Firaxis Games, is set to be launched on Oct 7.
Nintendo, which has several hit franchises like Brain Age, Kirby, Super Smash Bros, Pokémon and Mario, among others to its credit, recently announced the release of Mario Strikers: Battle League, available on Nintendo Switch.
Electronic Arts unveiled that new gameplay features will be made available in Madden NFL 23. The game will be launched on Aug 19, worldwide. EA’s Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games unveiled the next chapter of the popular Star Wars action-adventure series Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, scheduled to be released sometime in 2023.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.