Profits at Candy Crush maker beat estimates

The maker of the Candy Crush Saga video game reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates after it attracted more users for products such as Farm Heroes Saga.

King Digital Entertainment’s profit totalled 61 cents a share, excluding items, the Dublin-based maker of Saga-branded titles said yesterday. Sales rose to $606.7m (€436m) beating the $593.6m average estimate.

King, which fell 16% in its first day of trading in March after raising $500m, is working to develop a wider assortment of games to avoid the decline that hit Zynga, which relied too much on FarmVille for revenue.

Candy Crush accounted for 67% of King’s revenue, less than the 78% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2013. Monthly unique users increased to 352 million from 101 million a year earlier.

In April, King said it will introduce a Chinese version of Candy Crush Saga, a puzzle game that features different coloured candies, in partnership with Tencent Holdings.

King generates revenue when users purchase virtual items, such as extra lives or additional game content, to help complete levels. Its applications can be used on devices running Apple, Google and Amazon software, and are available on computers through Facebook.

The shares fell $2.35 to $16.41 in trading yesterday in New York, a fall of 12.55%. The stock’s IPO price was $22.50 in March.