- Long-term success comes from protecting the core experience while evolving features thoughtfully.
- Incremental updates, live ops, and player feedback are central to sustaining engagement.
- King leverages insights from its broader game portfolio – Candy Crush, Farm Heroes – to inspire new features without losing each game’s unique identity.
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Few mobile games are able to sustain growth after 10 years in such a competitive market. Yet Pet Rescue Saga has done just that, recently surpassing $1 billion in lifetime revenue while continuing to attract engagement from its players.
For King, that longevity isn’t the result of one single feature, update or monetisation strategy. Instead it reflects a long-term operation built around iteration, player trust and discipline.
Oriol Caro leads the catalogue games group at King, overseeing a portfolio of mobile titles, one of which is Pet Rescue Saga. He explains that the company’s approach to live games is rooted in continuity rather than reinvention.
“King has spent years running live mobile games at scale, evolving and sustaining titles that continue to thrive. But games don’t last that long by accident. That longevity comes from building lasting relationships with our players and constantly evolving our games.”
“King has spent years running live mobile games at scale, evolving and sustaining titles that continue to thrive. But games don’t last that long by accident.”
Oriol Caro
Caro goes on to explain that, whether small refinements or entirely new features, the goal is always the same: “protect what players love while continuing to raise the bar.”
That principle is particularly important for a title like Pet Rescue Saga, where familiarity is part of the appeal. Caro notes that players rescued more than 11.5bn pets last year alone, describing that level of activity as evidence that the game still feels “both consistent and fresh”.
Maintaining that balance is the live team’s central goal: keep the experience “familiar and comforting, while surprising players with new reasons to pop in and play, always keeping the core experience front of mind”.
Designing change without breaking trust
Long-running titles operate under different design constraints than new releases. Innovation can’t come at the expense of the game’s identity, and even positive changes can disrupt player expectations. King’s framework for managing that revolves around what Caro calls an “emotional promise” to players.
“For long-running titles, the key is evolving with intent. Pet Rescue Saga works because it delivers a clear emotional promise: players help save pets in small, satisfying moments that fit naturally into daily life. That ‘promise’ is our north star when deciding what to change. If a change strengthens that feeling, we explore it. If it distracts from it, we don’t.”
That idea explains why most updates arrive as refinements rather than grand redesigns. Caro says the team focuses on “incremental improvements – adding elements that feel fresh, intuitive and layered”, with larger changes deployed sparingly.
“Players should feel the buzz of something new, without feeling overwhelmed or like the game is constantly changing.”
Sustaining growth
Crossing the billion-dollar revenue mark might suggest a big breakthrough moment, but Caro stresses that Pet Rescue Saga’s trajectory has been additive rather than explosive. “It wasn’t one ‘big bang’ moment. It’s been lots of small, consistent improvements that have really added up and made a difference over time.”
“Sustained growth ultimately comes from focusing on what the game does best, making every rescue feel fun and meaningful.”
Oriol Caro
Recent work has focused on strengthening the game’s foundations and the team refreshed visuals to make them “brighter and more vibrant”, modernised pet designs while preserving recognisable charm, smoothed progression systems and expanded the game’s social features to make it easier for players to connect.
Systems like Petopia show how King approaches feature expansion for mature audiences, adding greater depth without altering the core loop. The mode lets players build and customise a city for rescued animals, with progression tied directly to level completion, reinforcing the established experience rather than trying to replace it.
For Caro, that alignment is key. “Sustained growth ultimately comes from focusing on what the game does best, making every rescue feel fun and meaningful.”
Learning across a portfolio
Operating a live game at this stage of its lifecycle requires strict decision-making and discipline. Teams must balance content, technical stability as well as player expectations while ensuring resources are spent where they matter most.
“Prioritisation is guided by a combination of player insight and performance data.”
Oriol Caro
According to Caro, that process starts with protecting fundamentals and ensuring levels feel fun, fair and satisfying. From there, priorities are filtered through both quantitative and qualitative signals.
“Prioritisation is guided by a combination of player insight and performance data. We’re constantly asking, will this genuinely improve the experience? If the answer isn’t clear, we pause.”
Completion rates are among the primary performance indicators because they reveal whether the difficulty is calibrated correctly: “Too hard and it becomes frustrating. Too easy, and it stops feeling rewarding. We’re always aiming for that sweet spot where it feels achievable, but you still have to earn it.”
But metrics alone don’t tell the full story. Player feedback helps explain pacing and friction points, showing where a player might be getting stuck or dropping off.
The openness to test and discard ideas is critical to sustaining long-term engagement. “If something’s working, we’ll improve and build on it. If it’s not, we’re happy to learn and move on. Agility is critical in live ops.”
One structural advantage King has is its portfolio of large-scale live titles, which creates internal knowledge that can be applied across projects. Caro describes this as a major strategic benefit.
“Being part of King is a huge advantage because we’re not working in a bubble – teams are constantly inspired by each other and a culture of sharing what we learn across teams. That helps us move faster and make smarter decisions.”
“Every game has its own personality, and what works in one title won’t automatically work in another.”
Oriol Caro
Ideas can originate in one franchise and be adapted elsewhere, such as leaderboard competitions inspired by Candy Crush Saga’s weekly content or race-style events influenced by Farm Heroes Saga.
However, Caro stresses that replication is never literal. “Every game has its own personality, and what works in one title won’t automatically work in another. We always look to adapt each idea to fit with the game and what our players enjoy most.”
The long view on live games
As player expectations evolve, the challenge for legacy titles is deciding which shifts to follow and which to ignore. Caro argues that staying close to the audience is more effective than chasing trends.
“The mobile games market never stands still, but the way we keep up is simple – by staying close to our players. It requires humility, listening carefully, being honest when something doesn’t land and constantly evolving based on what we learn.”
That mindset informs his advice to other studios aiming for similar longevity. First, consistency matters more than short-term gains. “Protect the foundations of your game and earn trust continuously over time.”
Second, bold moves are important but only when informed by data and context. Live games generate constant feedback, and “that learning is what gives you the confidence to take bigger swings when the moment is right”.
Equally important is knowing when to stop. “Sometimes ending a feature or live op that isn’t delivering is exactly what creates space to double down on a new feature that could have a much bigger, positive impact on the game.”
Looking ahead, Caro believes older titles may actually hold a strategic advantage. “Long-running games have something new titles don’t: years of trust, insight and community. You’re standing on a really strong foundation and that gives you the room to bring in new ideas to keep the experience feeling current and exciting.”
“Sometimes ending a feature or live op that isn’t delivering is exactly what creates space to double down on a new feature that could have a much bigger, positive impact on the game.”
Oriol Caro
The real risk can be losing sight of that foundation by following industry hype cycles. “If it pulls you away from what players love about your game, you can lose sight of the things that made it successful in the first place.”
For Pet Rescue Saga, the roadmap continues to expand systems like Petopia, including new themed content, progression ladders, and post-completion objects designed to keep engagement active even for veteran players.
The strategy reflects King’s broader view about live games: longevity isn’t achieved through constant reinvention, but through careful evolution that reinforces why players showed up in the first place.
We recently spoke with Candy Crush’s senior product manager about maintaining the 2012 title with new blockers and rewarding experiences.
