Candy Crush Saga maker King prices its shares at $22.50

In the most anticipated gaming IPO of the last few years, Candy Crush Saga maker King priced its shares at $22.50 in an offering that will raise $326 million for the company and value it at slightly more than $7 billion. Shares will trade for the first time tomorrow. That valuation will put King at nearly four times its trailing annual revenue of $1.88 billion. The vast majority of that revenue came from the mega-hit Candy Crush Saga, which pulled in 78 percent of the company’s bookings.

The game maker King Digital Entertainment scored a huge hit with Candy Crush Saga. Now the company will test how strongly public investors believe that it can find a new success story. The game maker priced its offering at $22.50 a share on Tuesday, the midpoint of its projected price range. At that price, the company has raised $500 million, valuing it at more than $7 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings so far this year. It will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday under the ticker symbol KING. It will remain to be seen if investors are convinced that King can come up with new hits — and continued revenue and profits — to back up that huge valuation.