Candy Crush Saga vs Crossword Explorer
Candy Crush Saga
King
App Store
$41.44M/mo
~$497.24M/yr · 664.6M installs
VS
Crossword Explorer
PlaySimple Games Pte Ltd
App Store
$422.8K/mo
~$5.07M/yr · 6.4M installs
Revenue winner
Candy Crush Saga wins
+9700% vs other
Installs winner
Candy Crush Saga wins
+10209% vs other
MAU winner
Candy Crush Saga wins
+10057% vs other
Rating winner
Crossword Explorer wins
+5% vs other
Why Candy Crush Saga is winning
Top 4 reasons - backed by the public App Store / Play Store numbers.
- Candy Crush Saga earns roughly 98× more per month than Crossword Explorer - $41.44M vs $422.8K.
- Premium pricing. Candy Crush Saga charges $26.03/mo vs Crossword Explorer's $9.99/mo - higher ARPU per converted user.
- Bigger install base. Candy Crush Saga has ~664.6M lifetime installs vs Crossword Explorer's ~6.4M - 103.1× the funnel top.
- Charts placement. Candy Crush Saga ranks #9 on the US grossing chart (the other app is unranked) - chart placement is a self-reinforcing flywheel.
→ Find more apps with this revenue gap · Full Candy Crush Saga report
Side-by-side metrics
Bars scale to whichever app is bigger on that row. Green = winner.
Candy Crush Saga
vs
Crossword Explorer
Monthly revenue (est.)?
$41.44M
◀
$422.8K
Annual revenue (est.)
$497.24M
◀
$5.07M
Lifetime installs (est.)
664.6M
◀
6.4M
Monthly active users (est.)?
132.9M
◀
1.3M
App Store rating
4.71★
▶
4.94★
Total ratings
3.9M
◀
59K
US grossing rank
#9
◀
-
Cheapest monthly sub
$26.03
◀
$9.99
IAP tiers detected
8 tiers
▶
10 tiers
- Category
- Games
- Price
- Free
- Released
- Nov 14, 2012
- Last updated
- May 6, 2026
- File size
- 313.6 MB
- Content rating
- 12+
- Version
- 1.327.0.1
- Languages
- Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch +23 more
- Category
- Games
- Price
- Free
- Released
- Sep 14, 2020
- Last updated
- Apr 27, 2026
- File size
- 314.2 MB
- Content rating
- 4+
- Version
- 1.152
- Languages
- English
Candy Crush Saga trajectory
Crossword Explorer trajectory
FAQ
Which makes more money, Candy Crush Saga or Crossword Explorer? v
Candy Crush Saga earns about $41.44M per month, while Crossword Explorer earns about $422.8K. That is a 98.0× revenue gap (~$41.01M more per month for Candy Crush Saga). Annual revenue: Candy Crush Saga ≈ $497.24M/year, Crossword Explorer ≈ $5.07M/year. Estimates are derived from public App Store signals - grossing rank, scraped IAP tiers, ratings and category benchmarks.
Which has more downloads, Candy Crush Saga or Crossword Explorer? v
Candy Crush Saga leads with about 664.6M estimated downloads vs 6.4M for Crossword Explorer - a 103.1× gap. Candy Crush Saga's App Store downloads are estimated from 3.9M ratings × the standard 1:75 ratio. Crossword Explorer's App Store downloads are estimated from 59K ratings.
Are Candy Crush Saga and Crossword Explorer in the same App Store category and competing for the same money? v
Yes - both apps sit in the Games category, which means they compete directly for the same paying users and category-level wallet share. Direct competitors, head-to-head.
What in-app purchases and subscription pricing do Candy Crush Saga and Crossword Explorer offer? v
Candy Crush Saga: IAP range 8 tiers detected. Crossword Explorer: IAP range 10 tiers detected. Candy Crush Saga runs a "Subscription (~$26.03/mo) · calibrated by US grossing rank #9" monetization model; Crossword Explorer runs "Subscription (~$9.99/mo)". Scraped tier prices and detected subscription pricing drive the bulk of the per-app revenue estimate above.
Which has better ratings, Candy Crush Saga or Crossword Explorer? v
Crossword Explorer edges ahead with ★ 4.9 vs ★ 4.7 (gap of 0.2 stars). Rating volume: Candy Crush Saga 3.9M ratings, Crossword Explorer 59K ratings. Higher rating volume = stronger ASO signal even when star averages are close.
How accurate are these Candy Crush Saga vs Crossword Explorer revenue estimates? v
Directional - typically within 2-3× of actual money earned for popular apps. The $41.44M for Candy Crush Saga and $422.8K for Crossword Explorer are derived from App Store grossing rank, scraped IAP tiers, ratings volume and category benchmarks (Games) - net of the 15-30% Apple/Google store cut. Real revenue depends on country mix, retention, refunds and ad fill rate, none of which Apple or Google publish.
How do I compare Candy Crush Saga or Crossword Explorer to a different App Store app? v
Use the search box at the bottom of this page or paste any two App Store links into the homepage tool. We auto-generate a permanent comparison URL with revenue, downloads, IAP tiers, subscription pricing and grossing rank for both apps.