Before its impending IPO, King claims that Candy Crush has been installed half a billion times and that more than 150 billion individual games have been played. Here, lie down on the couch and let a few shrinks tell you why it's so addictive.

This summer, you won’t have to go far to find a Candy Crush player. There they are: begging lives off strangers on the subway platform, bonding with fellow acolytes at the DMV, taking time off work to focus on what matters—literally wearing their lack of productivity like a badge. "Sometimes I just go into the bathroom and sit on the seat and play," a colleague confessed, describing some quality in-office downtime. "I don't tell many people that . . ."

Zynga went public over the popularity of a few hit Facebook games, and is now in the process of collapsing into a mush pit. Now the makers of Candy Crush Saga, the jellybean puzzle game gripping the brains of America, are plotting an IPO, the Wall Street Journal reports. First as tragedy, then as farce.