Making Candy Crush All Stars match ready with fresh mechanics and first official partnership

• Candy Crush All Stars 2026 starts today with a $1 million prize pool.
• New elements this year include Multiplier Tokens, a Life Savers sponsorship and a 15-track soundtrack debuting on Spotify.

Candy Crush All Stars 2026 kicks off today with the promise of a $1 million prize pool.

What began as a tournament in 2020 has since grown into an annual tradition for the match-3 giant, attracting more than 15m competitors in last year’s edition.

As King's 2026 tournament gets underway, beginning with qualifiers before advancing to live finals, we speak with senior game designer Dasha Mironava and principal games designer Therese Sander about All Stars’ new multiplier mechanic, first official partnership, and crafting levels where every move matters.

"All Stars is one of my favourite moments of the year. We launched it six years ago as a way to celebrate our most competitive players, and it has grown into this huge global event that players genuinely look forward to," Sander begins.

"It is still Candy Crush Saga at heart, but the stakes are higher and the atmosphere feels different. You can really sense the excitement in the community when it begins."

She says players expect a "joyful challenge" with more strategy and a sense that every decision matters.

New year, new features

Candy Crush All Stars is among casual mobile gaming’s biggest tournaments. Part of its philosophy is to be open and accessible, fitting the game’s casual genre; any player can compete as long as they’ve reached Level 5 in-game. King has opted against an invite-only approach or restricting participation to only the most elite of players, but even so, competition will be fierce.

Last year, in the fifth edition of the tournament, Tiago P from Portugal won $500,000 at the final in Los Angeles, surpassing a record number of contestants and the nine other finalists.

All Stars may be accessible to all, but players must showcase their skill and ambition to win. This year, they may also leverage a new tactical tool: Multiplier Tokens. These provide a 10X score boost while active, but their quantity is limited. Once activated, the token is used up.

"This year we’re adding a new multiplier mechanic - a strategic tool that gives players more agency over when they boost their All Stars performance," Mironava reveals.

"Players will receive a limited number of multipliers for the entire tournament and they can activate them in any stage they choose. Once activated, the multiplier increases the amount of All Stars candy they collect from won levels for a short time. It can help some players catch up, or help others create a stronger buffer if they time it well."

If its strategic potential is realised, Mironava expects this mechanic could influence which players progress to the later rounds. She is "really curious" to see the new strategies that emerge because of the multiplier and how fans ultimately use it.

"This year, because of the multiplier, we paid extra attention to pacing. We wanted boards that allow skilled players to plan ahead and maintain flow," she adds.

Inspiration for the new mechanic came from both player feedback and King’s own observations of how players approach the All Stars tournament. Some fans have felt the leaderboard is determined too early in the competition, with the notion of them ever catching up feeling "impossible". At the same time, others have enjoyed pushing themselves further in each round.

The multiplier was designed as something of a solution to this, a tool to keep the competition feeling alive for longer, where outcomes can shift based on timing but also decision-making.

"Every year we try to evolve All Stars so it feels even fresher, and this felt like a natural next step," states Mironava.

"Every move should count"

Sander speaks to the design philosophy and difficulty balancing behind Candy Crush All Stars. While players advance through early rounds by collecting the most blue All Stars candy during play, later the highest-ranking fans will compete on specially crafted boards.

These special levels aim to showcase the best of what Candy Crush has to offer. They’re crafted in such a way that, at the live finals, they should demonstrate current gameplay possibilities "in an outstanding way".

We ask whether the All Stars finals therefore serve as an ideal place to bring attention to newer Candy Crush mechanics like its revamped Fish or recent blockers like the Mal-O-Matic. Sander answers that an element should never be included "purely as a showcase" and that the live final is, above all, about competitive integrity.

New mechanics are only implemented when they suit a specific level, therefore, not just because they are new. At the same time, while Sander affirms mechanics are never implemented simply "for the sake of it", she does note that in the right circumstances, the finals present an opportunity to fully embrace and highlight the potential of new elements.

"By seamlessly integrating these fresh mechanics, we can create a more dynamic, engaging and surprising experience that keeps players excited and eager to play All Stars and get to the live final," she says.

"We always test so much going into the live final. Our aim is to truly crown the winner based on skill."

Mironava also emphasises the amount of preparation that goes on behind the scenes: "We prototype early, test internally, adjust difficulty curves and look closely at performance data. We spend a lot of time fine-tuning small details."

Sander adds that when crafting All Stars levels, all levels are tested by people and some have AI helping at scale where needed. Other levels simply can’t be tested with AI.

"You can't compare the difficulty of the live final levels with what is live in the game as we have tweaked many of the features, but they are designed to test the players’ skills and tactical thinking. Every move should count, and we keep the All Stars Candy in the focus in each of these levels as that is the heart of the competition - collecting candies," Sander shares.

Sportsmanship, Spotify and a sweet partnership

Players can start accruing blue All Stars candy today, March 5th, following a kick-off event hosted by former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch and sports commentator Erin Andrews.

The pair have stepped into a live broadcast booth in LA, home of the last two finals, to set an energetic and ambitious tone for the tournament.

"The final this year will be even bigger than before. We will have more levels than before and more fun twists happening," Sander teases.

Another new element in the 2026 edition of All Stars is its first official partnership; American sweets brand Life Savers is sponsoring the Second Chance rounds, which will give the top three players from each leaderboard who just miss out on advancing another chance.

"Life Savers marks the first official partnership for All Stars, sponsoring our Second Chance rounds and helping us shape how brand collaborations can enhance the tournament experience going forward," Sander shares.

"Life Savers have been great partners, so we look forward to seeing how our players respond."

And, in yet another move to make All Stars bigger than ever, musician Sebastian Saav has composed a 15-track Candy Crush All Stars soundtrack debuting globally on Spotify. The idea is for music to match the pace of play, to help players get into the zone and feel that competitive atmosphere while completing match-3 puzzles.

"Music is something super important to Candy Crush Saga. In All Stars especially, the tempo of the level, the cascades, the sound effects and the soundtrack all work together," Sander explains.

"For All Stars, we want everything to feel a little bigger, a little more electric, and music plays a huge part in that."