Bejeweled Celebrates 10th Anniversary, Over 50 Million Units Sold

Casual games giant PopCap Games announced today that its massively popular Bejeweled franchise has hit a major milestone: the gem-arranging title has sold over 50 million copies.

"When Brian Fiete, John Vechey and I built the game ten years ago,” said PopCap’s co-founder Jason Kapalka, "we had no grand aspirations for it or PopCap, we were trying to survive as a company during the depths of the dot-com collapse. Little did we know we'd still be selling copies of Bejeweled a decade later!”

For lovers of shocking statistics, check this out: someone buys a copy of Bejeweled every 4.3 seconds. The game was also named the Most Popular Puzzle Game Series of the Century by the Guinness World Records 2010 Video Games Edition. PopCap plans to release new installments in the franchise this year, and they will also be holding a Bejeweled Blitz competition later in the year.

I purchased the iPhone version of Bejeweled 2 a few months back, and I’ve played it almost every day since. It’s the perfect downtime killer, which is why it’s no wonder that the game has been such a success. It’s the same reason why the mobile phone version of Tetris is the best-selling mobile game ever. They’re quick, satisfying, and fun. Check and mate.