King president Todd Green talks new game development, competition and “doubling down” on the casual market

• We visit King’s London headquarters to interview president Todd Green.
• He spends much of his time between Europe and the US, leading King and meeting with Microsoft.
• King is focused on casual mobile games, though the lines are blurring between casual and midcore.
• Improving old games and creating new titles bring unique challenges but have “some shared DNA”.

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With more than 20 years of history behind it, Candy Crush maker King has evolved from web games and Facebook to a mobile gaming giant.

Now two decades in, the studio may once again be entering “a new era”.

We visit the London headquarters to speak with King’s president Todd Green about operations under Activision Blizzard and Microsoft, doubling down on casual, developing new games and more.

“One of the great things about our business is that distribution of the games is trivially easy. Players can access our games for free, basically anywhere that you have an internet signal and a smartphone,” Green shares.

“We make sure to support a massive range of devices – I think it’s iPhone 5, iPhone 6, you can still play our games on. So, it’s not that much has really changed in terms of reach, accessibility or availability of the audience.

“But what’s rare and valuable, what’s extremely difficult to do, is to build a really great game. A really awesome, excellent game. That’s definitely not trivially easy.”

New games in progress

Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Candy Crush Solitaire are among King’s 13 live games, with more titles also in development. Since the Candy Crush boom of 2012, King has continued to look for breakthrough opportunities and test new titles whilst also aiming to grow its live games.

New game development requires assessing what the market might be looking for, what players want and how to shape their expectations. Across its portfolio, King’s philosophy dictates that a game should be a fun “atomic experience”, engaging from second-to-second, session-to-session, month-to-month.

“What we’re trying to do is to make the games super fun if you play for two or three minutes, and then to make several versions of those two or three minutes either in the same session or in multiple sessions be really fun and rewarding,” Green explains.

“We’re constantly searching for what the next ideas can be that can give you that great feeling and then we can build a lot around that using all of the experience we’ve got with the live games.”

We ask whether King’s new game development focuses purely on casual or whether the company will also experiment in the midcore space. The company has a long history of trying, and failing, in the category.

“Never say never,” Green answers. “You’re right that we have experimented with other genres in the past, but at the moment what we’re doing is really doubling down on our experience in casual. That in itself is a massive market.”

At the same time, he notes that more mobile games are blending concepts from across genres today, leading to some successful casual features arising in midcore and certain midcore mechanics coming to casual.

The old bastions

Green’s rise to president has followed a 12-year legacy at the company, in which time he’s worked as executive producer of Candy Crush Saga, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, and been involved in the mobile launch of Farm Heroes Saga – the first UK mobile game to make $1 billion in revenue. During our tour of King HQ, we learn it’s since doubled that sum to $2 billion.

We discuss the maintenance of these ongoing titles, some of which have been operational for over a decade.

“Candy Crush is 14 years old,” says Green. “I don’t think anybody would have imagined it would be possible to launch a game that could last so long, and actually the large majority of our players, including many new players, are playing games which are still going many, many years after launch.”

He says that iterating and improving on pre-established games might be “less flashy” than releasing a new title, but it’s “at least as important”.  With millions of players every day, King’s mobile games require exciting, surprising gameplay that keeps them returning, but must balance that element of surprise with familiarity.

“There has to be some familiarity and consistency, but every time you open the game, we want you to see something different, so it should feel novel on some level.”

These days, there is a lot more competition in the match-3 space than there was in 2012. According to AppMagic estimates, Candy Crush was dethroned by Royal Match as the highest-grossing game in the genre annually in 2024. Dream Games’ blockbuster stayed on top in 2025, while Candy Crush remained in second.

Green says that an increasingly competitive market signals a “huge audience” to tap into.

“I hope and believe that we’re not at the end of growth of the size of the market, and that it will make lots of space for lots of people,” he shares.

“Competition is a sign that you’re doing something interesting, I would say. The first time I was running Candy Crush, I remember Mario launching on mobile. I thought, my goodness, what an exciting moment as a player.

“That was kind of a sign for us that mobile was really starting to be taken seriously by some of the companies that had built some of the great console and PC games. But, you know, that was already more than 10 years ago now.”

Green adds that the cost and complexity of bringing a mobile game to app stores is “coming down” compared to a decade ago, or even compared to during the pandemic, but making an excellent game isn’t so simple. It’s “not easy” to reach a large audience when there are so many mobile games to compete with.

“There have been many competitors entering the market over the last 14, 15 years, and it doesn’t really change that much of what we do,” says Green. “We can’t control what competitors do. What we can control is, can we create the best possible experience for our players?

“There are more games in the market, and we’ve been trying to find big bets, new and innovative ways to reach players, and to grind out greater efficiency for every dollar that we spend.”

While the challenges in growing and improving an older game differ from a new game launch, Green believes “there is some shared DNA there”.

Freshly crowned

Finally, we discuss the people behind the games – and the significant leadership changes at King and parent company Microsoft. Green took the helm at King in June 2025 as former president Tjodolf Sommestad stepped down to take time out from the mobile industry.

Less than a year later, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has retired after 38 years with the firm and Asha Sharma has risen to EVP and CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Green reflects that Spencer was “a great kind of sponsor of King” and a fan of a number of its games, but he is also excited for what the future will bring under Sharma.

Green spends quite a lot of time in the US, reporting to EVP and chief content officer for Microsoft Gaming Matt Booty. This time is partly spent helping Microsoft’s teams to develop and deepen their understanding of King – and vice versa.

“We need to understand more about how Microsoft folks are thinking and where they want to take the overall group,” Green states.

We raise the subject of layoffs, following cutbacks at the conglomerate last summer which were said to impact around 200 King staff. Green says there’s “no new news” to share.

King maintains “a tremendous amount of autonomy” while working under Activision Blizzard and Microsoft, Green claims, and notes that outside his US visits, he leads King predominantly from Europe.

“I have the good fortune to go to all of our offices on a regular basis. Over the last few years, it’s become quite possible to form relationships and solve problems and work collaboratively across different locations remotely. At the same time, sometimes, in my view, it is best to get on a plane, to get on a train, to go and sit with people in person.”

He and his family have moved internationally four times during his time with King: “It’s been fun for us.”

Looking forward, Green wants Candy Crush, Farm Heroes Saga and King’s many other titles to continue to improve – to become “better in three months, better again in six months, better in another 10 years”. King is in a marathon, not a sprint.