There’s been a lot of doom and gloom lately about Facebook games. Zynga’s stocks plummeted after a report saw that players were moving from Facebook to mobile. Facebook is having none of it, however, as they highlight a success story for a game that is completely immersed in Facebook.
The game in question is Candy Crush Saga. As the name suggests, it’s a match-three puzzle game that has players progressing through stages that increase in challenge along the way. It uses basic Facebook functionality such as comparing scores with friends, but does it in a more personal way.
The game utilizes a Facebook feature that allows the game to place friends’ faces onto each level. Players will be encouraged to beat that friend’s high score, but will keep on playing as each level has a friend’s face on it. It taps into our natural need to compete and Facebook helps attach a face to that instinct.
After competing for the high score and showing that one guy who’s boss, you can gloat about your victory all you want. The game even has a giant candy bar shaped share button so you can tell your friend how bad they are match-three puzzlers.
Of course, now you feel bad about gloating to your friend. You hurt their feelings in regards to their ineptitude at match-three puzzlers and want to make it up. The game has thought of this outcome as well and added in easy sharing options to send gifts to your friends. You then make up, but will inevitably start competing in the arena of Candy Crush Saga sooner rather than later.
So how has the cycle of battle and reconciliation affected Candy Crush Saga? The game grew 100 percent in May to 2.7 million daily active users. If that’s not impressive enough, the game has been played over 800 million times since its debut. Now it just needs a mobile version with Open Graph to really take off.