The mass market "match-three" puzzlers Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2 have sold over 25 million units combined across all platforms, PopCap announced Tuesday.

But the ubiquitous "casual" game wasn't seen as the sure-fire hit when it originally launched in 2000, according to PopCap.

"Considering we tried to sell Bejeweled outright to more than one industry giant back in the early days of our company, and got no takers even after reducing our asking price to $60,000, this little game has done all right for itself," said PopCap CCO and co-founder Jason Kapalka, who was also the original designer behind the Bejeweled games.

"I vividly recall prospective buyers telling us 'It's not even a game,' while showing us the door," he added.

Game or not, the Bejeweled franchise has generated over $300 million in consumer spending and "tens of millions" of dollars in online advertising, PopCap said.

While PopCap has sold 25 million copies of Bejeweled games, the firm said over 350 million copies have been downloaded from the Web--or nearly a third of PopCap's total "1 billion-plus" downloads.

The game can be played on nearly anything with a screen, as it appears on consoles, PC, mobile phones, airlines, hotel room TVs and more.

PopCap estimates people have played Bejeweled for around 6 billion hours in total.