Candy Crush is Britain’s favourite game

The popularity of Candy Crush among women and older gamers has led it to be voted as the UK’s favourite title.

That’s according to a YouGov survey of almost 2,000 Brits, who were asked to select their preferred title – past or present.

Candy Crush was the clear winner among female players, swiping almost a quarter (24.3 per cent) of the vote. A comparative 3.4 per cent of male gamers chose King’s mobile match-three game. When averaged, the app placed first with 11.3 per cent of the combined vote.

Second in the rankings was Grand Theft Auto, which was also the choice pick of male voters with 12.6 per cent of the vote. Perhaps unsurprisingly, men also preferred FIFA, with 11.5 per cent. However, the third-place male pick may come as a surprise – PC-exclusive strategy game Civilization, with almost one in 10 (9.5 per cent) of votes.

Civ actually placed in front of both Call of Duty (with 9.4 per cent) and Championship/Football Manager (8.3 per cent) in the male vote.

Meanwhile, the second-highest-rated game for women was The Sims (13.8 per cent), followed by Tetris (8.4 per cent) and Mario Kart (6.9 per cent).

YouGov also examined the favourite titles of each age demographic. The Sims placed first among the younger 18 to 24 group, with 17.5 per cent of the vote, followed by Grand Theft Auto (13.8 per cent) and, once again, Civilization (11.5 per cent).

Grand Theft Auto moves up to first pick for the core 25 to 39 audience with 12.5 per cent of the vote, followed by FIFA (10.7 per cent) and, interestingly, Mario Kart and Super Mario, both head of the football management titles and Call of Duty.

From those aged 40 and up, Candy Crush begins to show its casual-gaming dominance, claiming 16.1 per cent of the 40 to 59 vote and more than a third (33.6 per cent) of the 60-plus preference.

YouGov took the opportunity to look back upon the console wars of the past, too. When asked which they preferred out of the Sega Mega Drive and SNES, the battle was neck-and-neck, with the former claiming the victory with a minor 54 per cent majority.

Jumping up to the 3D generation, Sony’s PlayStation won by a country mile, claiming 69 per cent of the vote in contrast to the Nintendo 64’s 31 per cent.

In one battle that may come as a surprise, Nintendo’s iconic plumber Mario was found to be marginally more popular than Sega’s speedy hedgehog Sonic, with 57 per cent of the vote against the latter’s 43 per cent.