Candy Crush Saga now sees the downside of success

The developer of mobile video game Candy Crush Saga has had quite a ride to the top. King not only made millions and went public, the company also had the audacity to try to trademark the word "Candy." Deutsche Bank, though, has just downgraded the stock, as worries have grown that Candy Crush Saga has peaked, and is now experiencing the slippery slope of the downside.

That can be proven out with numbers. In the second quarter, paying users of Candy Crush Saga declined 12% from 11.9 million in the first quarter, to 10.4 million in the following three month period. The game that is replacing Candy Crush at the top of the charts is Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Last month, we told you that the game was running up the charts, helping publisher Glu Mobile's shares nearly double, before dropping back.

The Kardashian game allows you to spend money for in-app purchases designed to make you famous and fashionable inside the game. These in-app purchases are driving Glu Mobile's shares, and are forcing parent's of fashion-conscious teenage girls, to clutch their credit cards just a little tighter.

Does Kim Kardashian feel a little guilty about getting teens to spend their parents' hard earned money for a game? Not on your life. She says that it is parents' responsibility to monitor what their kids do with their handsets and tablets. After all, if kids want to blow huge wads of money on virtual fashion, who is she to stop them?

As for Candy Crush Saga, we've seen what the back side of an uptrend looks like when a once very hot mobile game starts to go south. It isn't pretty.Zynga spent big bucks for the company that owned Draw Something, and that one purchase nearly killed Zynga when Draw Something lost a large percentage of its users.


source: Yahoo