And after I found that I had spent somewhere between $70-$80, I realized I needed to quit the game altogether.' 'I started making a few in-app purchases to advance my levels. 'At first was just a silly game for me that I like to conquer,' Demastus told NBC News. Michael Demastus, 43, is a pastor living in Des Moines, Iowa, is one of the many players who chose to pay up. 99 cents to more than $10 a pop for extra turns in the candy land. Hovering above every board of every single level of 'Candy Crush' is the 'buy more turns' option, tempting you to spend anywhere from. Thing is, you're only allowed a certain number of moves on each level - unless you're willing to pay up.

Gordon never wanted to spend money to get the extra moves that made beating a level easier, so instead he'd compulsively revisit levels until he found a way to beat them. 'The tipping point,' Gordon said, 'was wanting to be a person again.' The endless challenge of 'Candy Crush' became too persuasive. Gordon is one of the few who's had his fill. And much like Rovio Entertainment's hit mobile gaming series 'Angry Birds,' the popularity of 'Candy Crush' has led to a swath of branded merchandise - predictably, in the form of real-life edible candy. The simplistic puzzle, which challenges players to match candy types on a tile-based grid, doesn't look like much compared to the epic scope of something like 'Grand Theft Auto V.' But even Rockstar's record-setting magnum opus doesn't command an audience anywhere near that of 'Candy Crush,' which reportedly brings in as much as $633,000 a day in in-app purchases - enough for its parent company, King to do away with in-game advertising entirely.Ĭandy Crush' has been downloaded more than half a billion times across Facebook, iOS and Android since it's 2012 launch, King announced in November. And try logging on to Facebook without receiving countless 'Candy Crush Saga' invitations for gameplay from your friends. It's impossible to take a trip on the New York City subway without seeing at least half a dozen people hunched over their smartphones, sliding candies back and forth in the desperate search for another match. Really, anybody can get hooked on 'Candy Crush,' and sometimes it seems everybody is.

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