Angry Birds hits 1 billion downloads
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Rovio's bird-flinging portable super-game franchise reaches new download milestone following March launch of Angry Birds Space.
The Angry Birds series has catapulted into a new stratosphere. Finnish developer Rovio Mobile today announced that games in the bird-flinging, pig-destroying portable strategy game franchise have been downloaded more than 1 billion times.
The milestone comes after the March release of the game's first true sequel, Angry Birds Space, which blasted off to 10 million downloads in just three days. That game includes a new low-gravity location, as well as additional bird types.
Angry Birds originally launched in 2009 and is now available on a range of platforms, including iOS and Android devices, the PlayStation 3, and Web browsers like Google Chrome.
Some gamers may shrug off Angry Birds as a simple way to pass time, but Legend of Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto praised the game last month, saying he admired its simple yet deep control scheme.
Despite the widespread success of Angry Birds, Rovio said in January that it is in no rush to follow the likes of LinkedIn and Zynga in filing for an initial public offering (IPO).
"This year is way too early for an IPO; there are too many open things, and we are in a very early stage of the Angry Birds life cycle," said Rovio marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka.
For more on the latest Angry Birds title, check out GameSpot's review of Angry Birds Space.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
115 comments
Petjel, virtually every game is just "stolen from older series games". If those older designers never got a penny for it perhaps they shouldn't have given them away or had been more appealingly designed.
I would be fine with this news if this was an original game.
But the core concept is just stolen from older series games that unfortunately never patented the idea's. The people that actually thought up the gameplay never got a penny for it.
Angry Birds is my favorite game of all time. I just started playing FlySmacker on iPad and I am addicted to that now but it needs more levels and in app cool things to get. I guess that happens in time. Id love to see Angry Birds mixed with another app like FlySmacker it wound be fun.
I absolutely get why this game is so popular - it's easy and has mass appeal; the same reason many of Nintendo's products do so well. Regardless, I played a free version all of once, and after 30 minutes, was done with it. If people enjoy it, kudos to them, I'd say it's easily worth the price. I need something a little more complex to keep me entertained beyond a day, and I find it absolutely laughable when people say that games like this will crush the market for traditional console games. There will always be people in abundance who like tic-tac-toe - that doesn't mean chess is going to disappear.
Angry Birds is actually "Artillary" with birds. Why Angry birds has never been ported to Nintendo Miyamoto likes it. 1 billion downloads is a good number for such a basic game.
It's free on several services, such as the first one being free on the android market. So it's not completely people who actually paid for a version of the game counting into this 1 billion downloads. Heck, I hate this game and I've got it on my android.
1 Like @tom_cat_01 Not exactly. You have to think that there are four Angry Birds games (Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space) and many people have more than one or may have the same one on different platforms. I'm sure the percentage of the human race who has played the game is still ridiculously high but I wouldn't go as far as to call it 1 in 6 people.
3 Like That's hundreds of millions of people so thick they can be entertained for hours on end by mindless repetitive crap like this.
At least production lines will always find staff.
1 Like I just find it crazy how it's already become a franchise...from t-shirts to stuffed animals, jeez, they even have fruit snacks based off Angry Birds :P.
True. Over half a billion in Sales $. This doesn't even include all the merchandise that has been sold. It's worldwide famous.
Out of curiosity, I'd like to know how much the publisher and developer made in profit from these sales? I know that some were free downloads from a certain phone service provider, but more than half a billion of those are solid sales. Wow. Congrats to their success!
When I said congrats to their success, I meant it from a business standpoint. Personally, I think the game is extremely overrated when you take in the gameplay, the attention they've received, and the amount of money they made from it. While games that took millions to make could barely scratch a fraction of Rovio's sales. It certainly shows that anyone could get into Mobile gaming. And you could also make a good guess that a good percentage of those people that purchased Angry Birds, bought it out of curiosity. Social Media owns all. :P
@Elann2008 well you have to think of the audience they make the games for?? games that usually take millions to make, are targeting a smaller group, a group that are filled with elites and pessimistic folks who don't want to fork over the money and/or time to that game. Which is part of the reason why we see a bunch of sequels. Ravio made a game on a device most people in the world have, and you can play it free, or buy it for 1 dollar. The risk is much smaller, plus, the audience is much larger.
it is a simple game that features recognizable characters in a very easy to learn game that everyone can enjoy. How can you not see how popular this is.
You can't possibly think only people like yourself live in this world. From kids, to adults, to seniors play angry birds. How can they lose? Of course there are better games, but are those games suitable for everyone??
It is the same reason why apps like instagram are so popular. There are quite a few camera apps that are better than instagram as far as photo editing, but the simplicity of instagram and the social aspect is where it shines, and the reason why they have 30 million people using it
I feel weird being that I'm such an avid gamer and have been my whole life playing hit games across pretty much every major hardware platform, and yet I still seem to be the only one who hasn't played Angry Birds.
@Derpalon your not the only one man if I studied action script a little harder I could have been filthy rich.
not supriseing at all cuz agrny birds is a superier game and it selled billions now so yah it looks like its true that handhold systams r dead cuz we can play way beter ganes on iphone insted
I downloaded this game 999,999 times because the download kept stopping at 99%. Third time's a charm my ass.
That means they've made $700 million on just a $1 app....
And Google/Apple has made $300 million combined by selling their app... lawl.
Personally, I really liked this game. I mean its not a hardcore or anywhere near the games on consoles, but as a standard, non-complicated and basically a 'pass the time' game, it is one of the best games on iOS or android. This game wasn't ever meant to be hardcore. If you don't like this game, then why are you in this page??
Congrats for the success. It may not be the best game out there but it is playable for everybody, but even so a billion downloads is a lot. So many people want to fling birds at pigs.
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the game is ehhh at best...there are soo many better mobile games out there...to name one siege hero (still took crush the castle's concept but actually altered it to make it more their own)
Woo! nice job! to those posters below me on why this game is popular...blame it on children. yes whiny yelling kicking make-you-embarass-type childs that wants this characters be it in a game or stuff toy form. *sigh and of course parents give in..so they are to blame too for the success of hungry beards---i mean angry birds ^__^ peace rovio luv ya! send me that angry bird character mug!
1 Like A billion? Wow, you don't hear many mobile titles getting that many downloads so congrats to Rovio.
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