King, the company behind hit mobile game ‘Candy Crush Saga’, is to stop using advertising as a source of revenue, instead relying on virtual currency.

In an email sent to advertising partners this week (and seen by TechCrunch), the company said it had decided to remove advertising “as a core element of King’s overall strategy” as it focuses on delivering an uninterrupted user experience.

“The executive team has decided to withdraw completely from the advertising business thus, removing all advertising elements within every King game worldwide effective immediately,” it added.

Alex Dale, King chief marketing officer, told TechCrunch that the business model for the company has changed as the majority of revenue growth has come from micro-transactions in the Saga series of games.

“It makes sense for us to reallocate the resources we had previously committed to advertising business,” he said, adding that some employees will leave King as a result of the move.

‘Candy Crush Saga’ has been at the top of the grossing charts for iOS and has given King 70 million daily active players and 26 billion monthly game plays.