Match-3 games have made more money than any other kind of mobile game. Candy Crush alone has earned over $20 billion. But there is a lot more to match-3 than its biggest hit, from the original Bejeweled to small indie games.
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1. Candy Crush Saga
Developer: King (Activision Blizzard) | Released: 2012
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
Difficulty: Easy to hard | Price: Free (in-app purchases)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
The biggest earning mobile game ever made. You match three or more candies to clear them, meet each level's goal, and move on through thousands of levels. At its peak, 93 million people played it every day. It made lives, the level map and asking friends for help into the normal way free mobile games work.
Pop culture: King's attempt to trademark the word "Candy" in 2014 made international headlines. The game has been referenced in everything from The Big Bang Theory to congressional hearings about screen time.
Screenshot: Candy Crush Saga, King.
2. Bejeweled
Developer: PopCap Games (now EA) | Released: 2001 (web); Bejeweled 2 (2004); Bejeweled 3 (2010)
Platforms: PC, iOS, Android, Web, Consoles
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Various (Bejeweled Classic is free on mobile)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
The game that set the rules for match-3 as we know it. You swap two gems next to each other to make a line of three or more. When one match makes the gems above fall into another match, you get a chain, and every match-3 game since has copied that.
PopCap sold over 50 million copies of Bejeweled before EA bought the company in 2011 for $1.3 billion.
Screenshot: Bejeweled, PopCap Games.
3. Gardenscapes
Developer: Playrix | Released: 2016
Platforms: iOS, Android
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Free (IAP)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
Match-3 levels with a story about fixing up an old garden. You win levels to earn stars, then spend the stars on the garden. Gardenscapes started the "fix up a place with match-3" idea, and hundreds of games have copied it since. Over 100 million downloads.
Playrix's "pull the pin" ads became famous for the wrong reason. They showed a game that wasn't in the app, and the FTC took notice.
Screenshot: Gardenscapes, Playrix.
4. Puzzle & Dragons
Developer: GungHo Online Entertainment | Released: 2012
Platforms: iOS, Android
Difficulty: Medium to hard | Price: Free (gacha + IAP)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
The game that mixed match-3 with monster battles and collecting random characters (gacha). You drag orbs anywhere on the board to make matches, and each colour makes one of your monsters attack. At its peak in Japan it earned over $1 billion a year, and more people used it each day than used Twitter there.
Screenshot: Puzzle & Dragons, GungHo Online Entertainment.
5. Royal Match
Developer: Dream Games | Released: 2021
Platforms: iOS, Android
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Free (IAP)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
The fastest growing match-3 game of the 2020s. You play well-made match-3 levels to decorate a castle, and you have probably seen its ads, because it is one of the most advertised mobile games in the world. Dream Games, a Turkish studio, was valued at $2.75 billion on this one game.
Screenshot: Royal Match, Dream Games.
6. Tetris
Developer: Alexey Pajitnov (original, 1985) | Various publishers
Platforms: Everything, every gaming platform there is
Difficulty: Easy to extremely hard | Price: Varies (Tetris Mobile is free; Tetris Effect is $39.99)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
Strictly speaking, Tetris is a falling-block puzzle, not a match-3. But it belongs on any casual puzzle list as the most important puzzle game ever made. Over 520 million copies have sold across all versions, more than any other video game. Tetris Effect (2018), a version built around music and light, is often called one of the best games of its decade.
Screenshot: Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov.
7. Best Fiends
Developer: Seriously (Playtika) | Released: 2014
Platforms: iOS, Android
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Free (IAP)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
A match-3 where you collect characters as you go. You draw a line through matching bugs (instead of swapping them) to attack enemies and move the story on. Drawing lines and the cute characters are what made it different from Candy Crush. Over 100 million downloads.
Screenshot: Best Fiends, Seriously.
8. Homescapes
Developer: Playrix | Released: 2017
Platforms: iOS, Android
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Free (IAP)
Where to play: Website · App Store · Google Play
The follow-up to Gardenscapes, with the same idea: win match-3 levels to pay for fixing up a house. Austin the butler walks you through restoring a family mansion. It also has the same kind of misleading ads, and just as many players.
Screenshot: Homescapes, Playrix.
9. Two Dots
Developer: Playdots (acquired by Take-Two in 2020) | Released: 2014
Platforms: iOS, Android
Difficulty: Easy to medium | Price: Free (IAP)
Where to play: App Store · Google Play
You join dots of the same colour to clear them. Close a square and every dot of that colour on the board goes. It looks plain and clean, the level art is lovely, and closing a square feels great. It is one of the best looking casual puzzle games around.
Screenshot: Two Dots, Playdots.
10. Columns (Sega Classic)
Developer: Sega | Released: 1990
Platforms: Sega Genesis, Game Gear, various (available via retro collections)
Difficulty: Easy to hard | Price: Available in Sega retro bundles
The other first match-3, out more than ten years before Bejeweled. Columns of three gems fall, and you match three or more of a colour across, up and down, or on a slant. It was Sega's answer to Tetris and one of the best known games on the Game Gear handheld.
Screenshot: Columns, Sega.
Quick Guide
| If you want... | Try... |
|---|---|
| The biggest, most levels | Candy Crush Saga |
| The original, best design | Bejeweled |
| Puzzle + home renovation | Gardenscapes or Homescapes |
| RPG + match-3 | Puzzle & Dragons or Best Fiends |
| Minimalist design | Two Dots |
| The greatest puzzle game ever | Tetris (especially Tetris Effect) |
| Drop and merge, like the Watermelon Game | Astral Fusion |
Want a daily puzzle that is about logic, not luck? Try Pairdle, our word game where you find a hidden word from pairs of letters.
By Tim Nye, Logic Loft Games
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