''Bejeweled'' is a series of

tile-matching A tile-matching video game is a type of puzzle video game where the player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion. In many tile-matching games, that criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the ...

puzzle video game Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. H ...

s created by

PopCap Games PopCap Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Seattle, and a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The company was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka. Originally founded under the name "Sexy Action Cool", ...

. ''

Bejeweled ''Bejeweled'' (also referred as ''Bejeweled Deluxe'' in some releases) is a tile-matching puzzle video game by PopCap Games, developed for browsers in 2001. The first game developed by PopCap under their current name, ''Bejeweled'', involves l ...

'' was released initially for

browsers Browse, browser or browsing may refer to: Programs * Web browser, a program used to access the World Wide Web *Code browser, a program for navigating source code * File browser or file manager, a program used to manage files and related objects * ...

in 2001, followed by seven sequels: ''

Bejeweled 2 ''Bejeweled 2'' (also referred as ''Bejeweled 2 Deluxe'' in some releases) is a Tile-matching video game, tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. Released as a sequel to ''Bejeweled'', ''Bejeweled 2'' introduces ...

'' (2004), '' Bejeweled Twist'' (2008), ''

Bejeweled Blitz ''Bejeweled Blitz'' is a puzzle video game, originally a Facebook application which was developed and published by PopCap Games; since 2011 Electronic Arts took over the publishing and distribution duty after EA acquired PopCap. It developed int ...

'' (2009), ''

Bejeweled 3 ''Bejeweled 3'' is a tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. It is the fifth game in the ''Bejeweled'' series following '' Bejeweled Blitz'' and succeeds ''Bejeweled 2'' as the latest mainline title in the ''Be ...

'' (2010), ''Bejeweled Legend'' (2012, in Japan only) ''

Bejeweled Stars ''Bejeweled Stars'' (formerly known as ''Bejeweled Skies'' during its soft-launch) is a tile match-3 game developed by PopCap Games and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the third spin-off title in the ''Bejeweled'' series and the first to deb ...

'' (2016), and ''Bejeweled Champions'' (2020) all by PopCap Games and its parent,

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

. More than 10 million copies of ''Bejeweled'' have been sold, and the game has been downloaded more than 350 million times. By February 2010, ''Bejeweled'' sales hit 50 million. The figure includes the original game, plus the Blitz and Twist versions. An arcade version was released in Q3 2013.

Games

;Main series *''

'' (2001) *''

'' (2004) *''

'' (2010) ;Spin-offs *'' Bejeweled Twist'' (2008) *''

'' (2008) *''Bejeweled Legend'' (2012) (Japan only) *''

'' (2016) *''Bejeweled Champions'' (2020)

Influence

''Bejeweled'' was influenced by the game ''

Shariki ''Shariki'' (Russian: Ша́рики, "The Marbles") is a puzzle video game written in 1994 for MS-DOS by Russian developer Eugene Alemzhin. The goal of the game is to gain progressively higher scores by matching three or more balls of the same ...

'', written in 1988 by Russian developer Eugene Alemzhin, which had nearly identical gameplay. The popularity of ''Bejeweled'' has spawned several clones. Collectively known as match three games, these games revolve around the mechanics of creating three-in-a-row combinations of identical pieces.

Legacy

After the release of Bejeweled, the game has been ported to many platforms, including cellphones, smartphones, game consoles, plug and plays, in-flight entertainment displays, and more. The series would be subject to several non-video game products including casino machines, three board games from

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

, a web series based on the characters Snackers and Anchovy from Bejeweled Blitz and more. On September 25, 2008, ''Bejeweled'' was officially released as a free addon for the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...

'', alongside ''

Peggle ''Peggle'' is a casual puzzle video game developed by PopCap Games. Initially released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X systems in 2007, it has since had versions released for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, the Nintendo DS (with t ...

''. In addendum to the standard 'Classic' (Normal) and 'Timed' modes, the addon has an exclusive 'Flight' mode, wherein the game begins when the player takes a flight from one in-game location to another, with the goal to score as high as possible before they reach their destination. The ''WoW'' addon adds

achievements Achievement may refer to: *Achievement (heraldry) *Achievement (horse), a racehorse *Achievement (video gaming), a meta-goal defined outside of a game's parameters See also * Achievement test for student assessment * Achiever, a personality typ ...

to the game, as well as a

levelling Levelling or leveling (American English; American and British English spelling differences#Doubled in British English, see spelling differences) is a branch of surveying, the object of which is to establish or verify or measure the height of sp ...

system. In 2014, ''Bejeweled'' and ''Candy Crush Saga'' (along with many other similar match three games) were proved to be

NP-hard In computational complexity theory, NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard pr ...

. ''Bejeweled'' is often considered an important part of the match-3 genre. The series had won multiple awards. By 2013, PopCap estimates that over 10 billion hours of the game had been played on over 500 million downloaded copies. In 2020, ''

'' was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* {{Electronic Arts Electronic Arts franchises Casual games Video game franchises introduced in 2001

Games

Influence

Legacy

Further reading

References

External links