Bejeweled has sold over 25 million copies announced EA and Popcap Games. Those includes sales of both Bejeweled 1 and Bejeweled 2 over all platforms.
Bejeweled has been released in various forms for: Xbox Live Arcade (original Xbox for Bejeweled 1, Xbox 360 for Bejeweled 2), Xbox 360 & PS2 (As part of PopCap Arcade Hits/Greatest Hits: Volume 1), PC (Windows, Mac OS X), Browser (Flash), PDA (Palm OS, PocketPC, Smartphone), J2ME, iPod and iPhone.
Bejeweled is the breakout hit puzzle game in which you swap two adjacent jewel pieces at a time to try and match up three or more of the same jewels going either vertically or horizontally. Unlike other puzzle games like Tetris, the playfield in Bejeweled is static (it doesn’t scroll up or down) and as you create combos of jewels other pieces fall to fill in their place. And just to give some perspective to that sales number, it amounts to 1 copy of the game per dozen people living in America!
Bejeweled 2 Gameplay Video
“Considering we tried to sell Bejeweled outright to more than one industry giant back in the early days of our company, and got no takers even after reducing our asking price to $60,000, this little game has done all right for itself,” said PopCap co-founder Jason Kapalka. “I vividly recall prospective buyers telling us ‘It’s not even a game,’ while showing us the door.”
Yeah . . . I’d hate to be those guys right about now.
Additionally, over 350 million copies of the game have been sold over the web, and all tallied the retail game has racked up about $300 million dollars, along with tens of millions more in ad revenue.
Just like with Tetris (a game that everyone and your mother knows), Bejeweled’s familiar interface has become the subject of imitation and even homage in the form of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (which is an RPG that features Bejeweled-style battles).
As the backbone of PopCap’s casual approach, Bejeweled has introduced plenty of people to videogames who wouldn’t play otherwise. And I have to agree with those who say, love or hate the casual game movement, there’s something to be said for expanding the market. You never know what other games those people who started off with Bejeweled might get into. And that’s a plus for everyone.
Besides have you ever played Bejeweled? It’s a heck of a lot of fun and highly addictive by anyone’s standards.