LONDON - King Digital Entertainment, the Swedish maker of the popular game Candy Crush Saga, has a lot riding on its initial public offering. But so do many other European technology companies, which are hoping King and its Candy Crush franchise are not one-hit wonders that might make it harder for the rest of them to attract investors.
King, which struggled for nearly a decade as a game maker before hitting it big with Candy Crush in 2012, plans to begin trading its shares Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Some analysts say the offering could value King at up to $7.6 billion, which would make it one of the largest I.P.O.’s of a European technology company in more than a decade, according to the data provider Thomson Reuters.
King is expected to price its shares after the United States financial markets close on Tuesday.
By securing a multibillion-dollar valuation, the 11-year-old King, which has offices across the Continent and in San Francisco, could pave the way for more European tech companies to cash in via I.P.O.’s.
Over the past decade, a number of tech clusters in cities like Stockholm, Helsinki and Berlin have sprouted, as entrepreneurs and venture capitalists look to profit from consumers’ insatiable appetite for technology. Many hope a successful King’s stock offering can help cement Europe’s reputation alongside Silicon Valley and Israel as a global center for start-ups and innovation.
‘‘The European tech ecosystem is starting to have critical mass,’’ said Niklas Zennstrom, a Swedish co-founder of Skype who has also backed several of Europe’s tech outfits like the gaming companies Supercell and Rovio. ‘‘A number of successful companies are becoming role models for other start-ups.’’
Yet King’s reliance on its main Candy Crush franchise, which represents almost 80 percent of its earnings, could prove a cautionary tale for other tech start-ups, if it cannot come up with successful future releases.
Analysts cite Zynga, the American gaming company behind the FarmVille and Words With Friends franchises that stumbled after its I.P.O. in 2011. Investors became skeptical about the company’s business model, and the company’s stock is still valued at less than 50 percent of its initial price.
Those with a lot riding on the King I.P.O. include the banks leading the offering: JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
King has relied to date on so-called freemium games, which allow users to download games for free, but charge them for access to additional content, virtual items or opportunities to accelerate their progress in games.
Industry analysts say the company must prove to shareholders that it can replicate the success that has attracted almost 100 million daily users around the world, people who play Candy Crush on smartphones.
‘‘Companies like King are reliant on hits,’’ said Mark Little, an analyst at the technology consultancy Ovum in London. ‘‘It’s an open question whether they can sustain their success.’’
King was founded in Sweden more than a decade ago, but its celebrity is of recent vintage. Its offices in cities across Europe, which include London, Barcelona, Spain and Bucharest, Romania, also have led to many in Europe’s tech community to take credit for helping the company to grow into a global giant.
Many in Stockholm still view the company, which has a large team in the Swedish capital, as their own, while the company’s office in London has led many here to claim King as a British success story.
The company’s growth has come alongside consumers’ growing interest in games on their mobile devices. King’s revenue jumped to $1.9 billion last year from only $164 million in 2012, according to regulatory filings.
King acknowledges its current dependence on Candy Crush, having warned that the franchise’s sales will decline over time, and that the game’s revenue actually fell in the fourth quarter of last year. The company’s second-most popular game, Farm Heroes Saga, is only about one-fifth the size of Candy Crush, in terms of daily players.
Other European games companies that have achieved global prominence include Supercell, the Finnish maker of the hit Clash of Clans, was valued at $3 billion last year when the Japanese telecommunications company Softbank bought slightly more than half of the company for $1.5 billion.
As with King, revenue at Supercell skyrocket over a short period. Last year, it rose nearly ninefold to almost $900 million compared with 2012, while its pretax profit jumped eightfold, to $464 million, over the same period.
Companies like King and Supercell have focused on new games, but other European gaming companies have diversified into new sectors to reduce their reliance on a single product line.
Rovio, the Finnish maker of the Angry Birds franchise, has expanded into movies, theme parks and educational offerings that build on its existing global brand.
‘‘Some gaming companies are clueless about branding,’’ Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio’s chief marketing officer, said in an interview this year. ‘‘They build games to last 100 days and move on to the next one. There’s no guarantee that they will create hits.’’
