Just in a few weeks, the mobile app Flappy Bird became a global phenomenon. It was a simple game, but frustrating and endless. Sharing many similarities with the famous Helicopter Game— only with Super Nintendo-style graphics — it’s safe to say Flappy Bird took over the web and said to be earning $50,000 per day revenue from in-app advertisements.
The game was designed and built by Dong Nguyen, a developer who lives in Vietnam. Nguyen previously made a number of iOS and flash games for his mobile studio .Gears.
Flappy Bird first launched in 2013 for iOS and Android devices. It has been the number-one free app in Apple’s App Store and in the Google Play Store for the past few days. It became an overnight Internet sensation after tweets, videos and reviews went viral.
The goal of the game — to navigate a yellow bird through a series of obstacles by tapping on the screen — appears simple, at first, but players often find themselves spending frustratingly long amounts of time trying to finish the addictive game.
This is an unprecedented move for a No. 1 app. Flappy Bird reportedly had more than 50 million downloads, most of those in the past couple of weeks. Nguyen, a lone developer in Hanoi, Vietnam, made the app. At first, he seemed to enjoy his good fortune and tweeted frequently. But he also got a lot of criticism, in part because the pipes in the game looked a lot like they came from a Nintendo Mario game.
He didn’t elaborate much on his decision to remove the title, except to say it wasn’t for legal reasons. But he previously expressed frustration about all of the criticism and accusations he had been receiving.
In taking the game down, he’ll be giving up an estimated $50,000 a day that he was generating in revenue from in-app advertisements.
In a tweet last week he said, “Please give me peace.” Those who have already downloaded the app can still play it. But it is gone from both the iOS and Google Play stores. The description still shows up in the stores, but it is unavailable for download.
If you haven’t tried it yet, here is the apk for Android.
Requires Android: 2.2+
Download File Size: 894 KB
