Candy Crush Saga

It's easy to be snobby about Candy Crush Saga, and just as easy to lose an evening to it. More than a decade and several thousand levels in, King's match-3 is still a genuinely smart puzzle game — the problem is everything built around the puzzle to separate you from your money.

How it plays

Swap adjacent candies to line up three or more; clear jellies, drop ingredients, or hit a score within a move limit. Special candies — striped, wrapped, the colour bomb — chain into satisfying cascades when you set them up well. The best levels are little logic problems disguised as a sugar rush.

What's great

The core design is sharper than its reputation suggests. Levels are hand-tuned, the feedback is juicy, and it's endlessly approachable — anyone can play, on basically any device. When you crack a tough board with a clever cascade, it genuinely feels earned.

What holds it back

The monetisation is the game. Lives gate how long you can play, certain "wall" levels are tuned to nudge you toward buying boosters, and limited-time events lean hard on fear of missing out. None of it is hidden, but it shapes every session. Play it with your wallet firmly shut and you'll have a good time; let it get its hooks in and the value drops fast — which is why we marked Value down.