Candy Crush Saga’s King files for IPO

Free-to-play specialist King has filed for an IPO as it plans to go public.

It will list on the New York Stock Exchange as King Digital Entertainment using the ticker symbol ‘KING’.

The filing also revealed that King’s 2013 revenues hit $1.88bn with net profit reaching $567.6m. That’s up a staggering amount from 2012’s $164.4m revenue and $7.8m profit.

King’s games now boast an average of 128m daily active users, 93m of which are playing Candy Crush Saga. Monthly active users averaged 408m in the last quarter of the year.

Candy Crush currently accounts for 78 per cent of King’s player spend, despite the fact that as of last September 70 per cent of its players who had reached the game’s final level had not spent a penny.

The opportunity in front of us is exciting: mobile usage is exploding and games are commanding the lion’s share of time spent,” the filing said.

Going public creates a liquid market for our current and future employees and equity holders and will give us greater flexibility to act on strategic opportunities if they arise in the future.”