King said its 2024 Candy Crush All Stars tournament grew from players asking for a more competitive way to play Candy Crush Saga. The company worked with its product team to build an accessible competition around the casual mobile game, culminating in a live final in Los Angeles. GamesBeat reported more than 15 million participants across 21 countries and a $1 million prize pool for the event.
What was Candy Crush All Stars?
All Stars was a competitive experience built around Candy Crush Saga, not a separate console-style esports game. In a 2024 GamesBeat interview, King marketing lead Luken Aragon said the idea came from player feedback: people wanted a way to play Candy Crush more competitively. King piloted the concept in the UK, then worked with its product team to develop a different way to play.
Aragon described the work as an effort to bring competitive intensity and emotion into a casual mobile experience, rather than to copy PC or console esports. “We’re trying to bring some esports DNA into a casual experience,” he told GamesBeat. He also said the format was developed over multiple years, with simplicity and accessibility as priorities.
How the 2024 tournament worked
GamesBeat’s report on the 2024 event describes two months of competition, followed by an in-person final in Los Angeles for the last 10 players. It reported more than 15 million participants from 21 countries. Those are figures reported for that historical tournament, not a current participation estimate or independently audited totals.
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The scale of play was also reflected in the figures GamesBeat published: 2.2 billion levels played, 47 billion moves made, 11.4 trillion All Stars candies collected and 304 billion color bombs exploded. These totals apply to the 2024 event as described in the report.
Why King chose a casual competition format
King’s stated goal was to make competition feel natural for Candy Crush players. Aragon distinguished the event from a conventional large-attendance esports spectacle: “We don’t have an audience attending, spectators.” In his account, the final was not designed around thousands of people watching in person. That describes King’s approach to this tournament, rather than defining esports as a whole.
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Instead, All Stars connected an in-game competitive experience to a smaller live final. That let King draw on the scale and familiarity of a mobile puzzle game while giving its strongest competitors a championship moment. Aragon summed up the company’s broader purpose as: “Our mission is still to make the world playful.”
Who won Candy Crush All Stars in 2024?
GamesBeat reported that Ben Parker Chin, from Ohio, won the 2024 tournament and its $500,000 first-place prize. Suzanne Sundström of Stockholm placed second and received $250,000; Verissa Thomas of Atlanta placed third and received $100,000. The report says the overall prize pool was $1 million.
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The final was hosted by Brie Garcia, who called the finalists “nothing short of athletes,” according to GamesBeat. Chin said he began competing while recovering from surgery, which gave him time to think through his moves and plan a strategy. The winner also received a unique championship ring designed and created by Icebox; the report does not say the ring was offered for sale.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the event says about Candy Crush’s audience
In the interview, Aragon described Candy Crush as part of a large franchise, citing more than $20 billion in franchise revenue, more than five billion franchise downloads, more than 200 million monthly active users across King’s games, and more than 16,000 Candy Crush Saga levels. These are company figures he gave in 2024, not audited or current metrics.
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All Stars shows how King sought to extend a familiar single-player puzzle game into a competition without requiring the conventions of a major arena event. The tournament’s reported participation and gameplay totals suggest the appeal King was aiming for: keep the core experience recognizable, then give players a reason to chase a result against others.
Read Dean Takahashi’s GamesBeat interview and report on Candy Crush All Stars (published June 20, 2024; updated June 18, 2025).
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