Activision Blizzard snacks on another strong quarter of Candy Crush growth

Activision Blizzard beat expectations for first quarter fiscal 2019 earnings today, and it looks like investors have the sweet work of King Entertainment and the long-lived Candy Crush series to thank for part of it.

The video game publisher today announced that Candy Crush active users were up 2% to 272 million for the second quarter in a row, with Candy Crush Friends Saga bringing in new people and lapsed players from older games. It’s the first time King’s seen such growth since 2015, it said during the earnings call. It also said that players were spending more time in the franchise’s games than ever before, with a company record of 38 minutes per day (that’s an average, folks).