Shares In Candy Crush Maker Fall By 10%

Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) in the maker of hit smartphone game Candy Crush Saga fell more than 10% after-hours as the number of people spending money in-game falls fast.

London-based King Digital beat investor expectations in its latest results but warned that revenues for the current quarter would be "seasonally softer" and by hit by currency fluctuations.

First (Other OTC: FSTC - news) quarter revenue fell from $606.7m (£384m) to $569.5m, with profits rising 31% to $210.9m (£569m).

But King Digital said the amount of people spending money in-app in the second quarter will be below what investors are hoping for.

Candy Crush Saga and other titles are available to play on Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) but traffic to the site has dwindled as the focus moves to mobile. King Digital now relies on smartphone and tablet use for 81% of its revenue.

While the firm's user base is growing - around 158 million people play King titles each day - the number of people spending money on in-game items and perks has fallen.

Those that do choose to spend money while using the firm's apps spend an average of $23 (£14m) each month.

King's main game is Candy Crush Saga, but it has released other games to try to diversify.

A handful of new titles are expected later this year, including a resource management game similar to Zynga (NasdaqGS: ZNGA - news) 's FarmVille.

Chief executive Riccardo Zacconi said more games are in development than ever before.