When matched symbols are aligned, points are awarded and the ‘captured’ matching symbols are removed from the game matrix (and replaced by other symbols). To play Candy Crush, players are allotted a fixed number of moves in which they can swap symbol positions with the goal of horizontally or vertically aligning three (or more) matching symbols. Of particular interest is the surging popularity of Candy Crush Saga-a free-to-play, candy themed puzzle game that has captivated at least 93 million daily active users in 2014, and generated $2.2 billion in profits (mostly from in-app purchases) in that same year (King Ltd 2015). From the initial craze surrounding the game “Snake” on early Nokia devices, our mobile gaming habits have been transformed by the ever-expanding quality, sophistication and overall usage of smartphone technology. Since the emergence of multimedia cellular phones in the mid-1990s, mobile phone gaming has claimed some degree of presence in our continuous, ‘on-the-go’ lifestyle. These findings suggest that near-misses in Candy Crush play a role in player commitment to the game, and may contribute to players playing longer than intended. Most importantly, of any type of outcome, near-misses triggered the most substantial urge to continue play. Near-misses were also subjectively rated as the most frustrating of all outcomes.
Near-misses were more arousing than losses as indexed by increased heart rate and greater subjective arousal. Sixty avid Candy Crush players were recruited to play the game for 30 min while having their Heart Rate, Skin Conductance Level, subjective arousal, frustration and urge to play recorded for three types of outcomes: wins (where they level up), losses (where they don’t come close to levelling up), and near-misses (where they just miss levelling up). Because near-misses in gambling games have consistently been shown to invigorate play despite being frustrating outcomes, the goal of the present study was to examine whether such near-misses trigger increases in player arousal, frustration and urge to continue play in Candy Crush. In Candy Crush, the game signals when you just miss getting to the next level by one or two moves. In slot machines, a near-miss involves getting two of the needed three high-paying symbols on the pay-line (i.e., just missing the big win). Like many gambling games, the exceedingly popular and lucrative smartphone game “Candy Crush” features near-miss outcomes.
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