Candy Crush maker King is testing another new spin on its hit puzzler: Candy Crush Blast.
As spotted by consultancy firm Naavik, the new game is currently only available on Android in the Philippines, and appears to be King’s take on Peak’s category-leading blast-puzzlers Toy Blast and Toon Blast.
As Naavik notes in its analysis of both Candy Crush Blast and Candy Crush 3D, it is King’s second soft launch in the match-blast genre after 2018 title Candy Crush Cubes, which still appears to be in soft launch in Malaysia, according to Sensor Tower and Appmagic.
Candy Crush Blast’s beta quickly followed the soft launch of Candy Crush 3D, King’s spin on match 3D puzzlers like Boombox’s Triple Match 3D, Zynga’s Match Factory and Spyke Games’ Tile Busters.
Another Candy spin-off, Candy Crush Solitaire, was also soft launched in July 2023, but appears to have been removed from testing in Canada and the Philippines.
Currently Candy Crush Blast’s store description on Google Play references blasting “delicious jelly cubes of the same color to create power-ups and win levels.” It also describes “tricky blockers”, “iconic and powerful boosters, such as the color bomb” and offline play.
We have asked King for further detail on the game and will update this story if we get any response. Last time, in response to our enquiry about Candy Crush 3D, it told us: “We take a test and iterate approach to crafting new games. Extensively testing our new titles under development is how we ensure we invest only in games our players and the industry will love.”
“Some of these ideas will grow and go on to further development, and others, we’ll take the learnings to create the best experiences for our players elsewhere. We continue to take this approach with any of our new games and we look forward to sharing more information with you in the near future.”
The expansion of King’s premier IP comes not long after it was acquired by Microsoft as part of 2023’s landmark Activision Blizzard buyout.
Activision-Blizzard-King’s new owner has said several times that it wants to launch its own app store to compete with Apple and Google’s duopoly – and King will likely play a pivotal role in that strategy.
