CBS is turning Candy Crush into a live-action TV game show

CBS has announced that King's immensely popular mobile game Candy Crush will soon be soon be adapted into a TV game show. Based on the addictive puzzle game, the new live action game show series will be created by Matt Kunitz, who produced NBC's popular game show Fear Factor as well as Wipeout. It will be broadcast on CBS' TV network in the US and distributed internationally by Lionsgate.

The hour-long show will pit teams of two people who will need to "use their wits and physical agility to compete on enormous, interactive game boards featuring next generation technology to conquer Candy Crush and be crowned the champions".

"We are huge fans of Candy Crush and, like so many others, we know the 'rush' of advancing to the next level of the game," Glenn Geller, president of CBS Entertainment, said in a statement.

Released in late 2012 by UK tech firm King Digital, Candy Crush was originally launched as a match-3 puzzle game for web browsers before making its way to smartphones to become one of the biggest hits ever in the $36bn mobile game business. The game's massive success also led to Activision buying King for a whopping $5.9bn in February.

As of September, people play an average of 18 billion game rounds every month worldwide, according to King.

As an avid Candy Crush Saga player himself, Kunitz said he is excited to take on the project.

"The Candy Crush franchise lends itself perfectly to the kind of larger-than-life physical game shows that I love to produce and CBS is the perfect home for it," executive producer Kunitz said. "I am excited to amp up the action and visuals in our huge Candy Crush Arena."

Kunitz will be working closely with King's chief creative officer and Candy Crush executive producer Sebastian Knutsson on the show.

"The Candy Crush franchise has been loved by players around the world on mobile so it's very exciting to be working with Matt and the team to bring the fun and challenge of the Candy Crush games to television," Knutsson said. "We hope our players will be entertained by what is set to be a high-energy, challenging game show."

While video game companies often try to transform their IPs into other forms of entertainment such as films and movies, they rarely turn out to be particularly critical or commercial successes.

Although Activision's summer release Warcraft turned out to be the highest grossing video-game adaptation of all time, it did lose nearly $15m. The Angry Birds Movie, on the other hand, turned out to be a financial success earning $347m globally on a $73m budget. New Line Cinema secured the rights to bring Halfbrick Studios' Fruit Ninja to the big screen as well.

CBS has yet to announce a premiere date or host for the Candy Crush Saga series.