Joanna Li sat toward the back of her life science class, staring at candies on her smartphone screen and anticipating the final move that would beat the level.
With the stroke of her finger, three red candies aligned and disappeared with a poof. She sighed in relief as she moved on to the next level.
Even though the glory days of the game Candy Crush peaked nationally in the summer of 2014, the app remains popular with dedicated fans who have surpassed level 1,000 and newcomers on the UCLA campus seeking a fun distraction.
Li, a first-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student currently on level 1,403, began playing Candy Crush her sophomore year of high school in 2013. She said Candy Crush’s simplicity initially drew her to play, with the game’s restriction to five lives keeping her from playing too often and getting bored.
“I have a highly addictive personality and Candy Crush forces me to have some self-control,” Li said.
Li said after three years of playing, she won’t stop until she’s completed the last level, currently set at 2,215. She wants to become a Candy Crush master, despite the game’s decline in popularity since the initial craze.
First-year biochemistry student Michelle Murphy has been playing Candy Crush since 2013 as well. She began playing because most of the students at her high school were playing Candy Crush, and she wanted to see why everyone was addicted. Now on level 1,035, Murphy said the game’s mindless stress relief keeps her playing.
“It’s not like it takes skill; most of the time it’s luck,” Murphy said. “After you beat a level it’s so relieving, and I’ve been playing for so long, so why stop now?”
Former member of the UCLA Game Lab and Class of 2014 alumnus Nick Crockett said the feeling of relief that Candy Crush provides makes it a popular game. The game’s visual design rewards people’s brains in a primitive way.
“Games like Candy Crush are just like a slot machine,” Crockett said. “Maybe you win, maybe you lose, but it’s the experience that makes the game fun.”
Crockett said gamemakers like King Digital Entertainment PLC, the creator of Candy Crush, design their games using these psychological principles of trial and reward. He said by taking advantage of psychology, the player is put in a state of pleasurable concentration that brings in revenue for King.
“99 percent of players won’t spend a dollar, but there’s that 1 percent who will spend hundreds. That’s King’s target audience,” Crockett said.
Even though neither Li nor Murphy ever paid money for extra lives or power-ups on Candy Crush, both said they have used Facebook to request lives for the most difficult levels that can contain time constraints and a limited number of combinations. Now, they said it’s useless to request lives online because their friends no longer play.
First-year economics student Anycia Reyes said she recently began playing Candy Crush once her boyfriend sent her a request for a life over Facebook. Since then, she said she’s been playing constantly during her free time.
After a week of playing, Reyes is currently at level 35. She said she doesn’t have any plans to stop.
“Sometimes when I close my eyes I can picture swiping the candies. I still haven’t even sent my boyfriend the life request, I’ve just been too distracted with the game,” Reyes said.
Like Reyes, Li doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Li said even though college classes are difficult and time-consuming, she makes time for the joyful competition she feels from playing Candy Crush.
“I’ve gone in too deep, I can’t stop now,” Li said. “It’s like running a marathon, you don’t get to the last mile and say ‘I’m done.'”