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.