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Editor: Sushovan Sircar
“During the first week of April, when Ramayan was back on television, immediately after the episode ended at 10 pm, we would see a huge spike (in active users), which made our servers crash,” says Ludo King founder & CEO, Vikash Jaiswal.
In a candid conversation with The Quint, Jaiswal said that prior to the lockdown, Ludo King had 13-15 million daily active users. However, since the lockdown began, the app has about 48-50 million users daily.
Ludo King has emerged as a respite for many from the grim realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. The app avatar of the household board game has been among the rare winners amidst the attendant economic crisis brewing in the country.
Jaiswal said he plays Ludo King on a daily basis but hasn’t had much success. “For the last three days, I have been losing every single match.”
However, on the question of whether there is any basis to allegations from passionate players regarding cheat codes or rigging, the CEO issued a vehement denial.
“The game’s server does not know anyone. The server simply generates the random numbers on the dice,” said Jaiswal.
According to Jaiswal, the game has 350 million downloads in total and is the only Indian game to have crossed the 100 million milestone on Google Play Store.
To ensure the servers don’t crash under the weight of the huge surge in players, “We had to put up a ‘under maintenance’ notice and worked on it for several days,” added Jaiswal.
Ludo King is also working to introduce two new features:
Both features are expected to go live by 15 June.
Given the game’s popularity and dependence on luck, does Jaiswal get requests to share cheat codes?
While the founder has denied the existence of cheat codes to manipulate the game, he admitted that they get many mails asking for such codes.
“My developers and I laugh whenever people say they know hacks to control the outcome of the dice or ensure victory,” he said.
One particular incident that Jaiswal shared illustrates the desperation to win at Ludo King.
“The game should be played as a game and nothing more. One should be careful with sugar intake to ensure one doesn’t get struck by diabetes,” added Jaiswal, advising not to take the game too seriously.
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