For the past year, whether you think they're ripoffs or not, you couldn't get away from Zynga games. Draw Something, FarmVille, Mafia Wars, etc. But with shares diving, and the company continuously losing and gaining corporate staff, with Xbox's Don Mattrick set to try to reign in the company, a new developer has risen up and laid claim to the throne as "King" of social games.
Rather appropriately, said King is "King," the developer of Candy Crush Saga, which you've no doubt gotten requests from your friends if you've stepped near Facebook any time in the last six months.
According to AppData, King holds the crown as social network site's top game developer, the company's Candy Crush surpassing Zynga's FarmVille 2 in active users. To date, almost 45 million Facebook users are playing the candy swapping game (it looks girly, but it's also addictive as hell).
This past March, Candy Crush was named the best social game by the International Mobile Gaming Awards. And you thought there were too many award shows on television.
King owes its success to other Saga games as well, including Farm Heroes Saga and Pet Rescue Saga, the number of players for which numbers roughly half that of Candy Crush.
As a bit of a Candy Crush addict myself (curse you chocolate!), I'm personally quite proud to see King topple the once mighty Zynga. I grew tired of the company ever since I would get teamed up with people in Draw Something who would rather write out what they were supposed to draw. All for earning the gold for a few extra colors. Shameful, really.
Mattrick hopes he can restore Zynga to its former "glory," saying, "I've seen firsthand how powerful franchises and networks can work together to deliver breakthrough value for consumers and drive sustainable growth. We too, have all the makings of a successful service and business and we have the opportunity to create lifelong relationships with our customers through our high quality products."
