The Five Most Addictive Games Ever

Games such as Candy Crush Saga and Flappy Bird have us wanting to smash our mobile screens, so then why is we crave more? We take a look at the top five most addictive games ever to be made.

Candy Crush Saga creator, King, trademarked the word ‘candy’ in the European union so no one could create a game with the word ‘candy’ in it. King withdrew its application to trademark in the U.S due to unknown reasons. As of February 2014 Candy Crush Saga became the most popular app on Facebook. The game is very similar to Bejewelled and is addictive due to its lack of lives and by the end of 2013 the game had been installed over 500 million times across Facebook, iOS and Android.

Although Flappy Bird is no longer on the market it has become one of the most addictive games of all time. It was released in May 2013 but didn’t rise to fame until January 2014. The game raked in £30,000 in revenue per day thanks to pop up adverts. The game had been downloaded more than 50 million times and was probably the most addictive game ever. Granted the games graphics were very simple but that didn’t stop little birds and big green pipes haunting nightmares.

FarmVille was rated the number one app on Facebook back in 2010 with over 81 million users. The game was extremely addictive to those who wanted to build a virtual farm. Who thought there were so many farmers amongst us? Studies into the game showed that FarmVille players outnumber real farmers in the US by a ratio of 60 to 1. FarmVille users have now taken a step back from harvesting their crops with only 39 million people probably to crush candy instead.

Temple Run was released in August 2011 and a year later the game had been downloaded 100 million times and was played 10 billion times. It’s addictive because it is an unlimited run in a temple where you make the character jump, duck and slide left and right at a quick pace. The game makes you want to beat your last score and travel further into the game. The game was so successful that the creators have since made Temple Run 2.

In May 2012, Angry Birds reached its one billionth download. The game has become so huge that it has branded more than 10 million notebooks, lunchboxes, bed sheets, clothes, cuddly toys etc. The Angry Bird brand has also reached TV with its own TV show called Angry Bird Toons shown on various different children channels. The game has always been competitive for killing pigs that have stolen the bird’s eggs. With many different levels to choose from, Angry Birds isn’t going to move from the charts.

This story was featured in our first print edition which is available now in schools and by contacting Yasmine@bringingwords.org