Angry Birds

Angry Birds (later remarketed as Angry Birds Classic) is a 2009 casual puzzle video game developed by Rovio Entertainment. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for iOS and Maemo devices in December 2009. Since that time, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from the iOS App Store, which prompted the developer to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, most notably Android, Symbian, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry 10 devices. The series has since expanded to include titles for dedicated video game consoles and PCs. A sequel, Angry Birds 2, was released in July 2015 for iOS and Android.

The gameplay revolves around players using a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed in or around various structures, with the goal of destroying all the pigs on the playing field. As players advance through the game, new types of birds become available (some with special abilities that can be activated by the player). Rovio Mobile has supported Angry Birds with numerous free updates that add additional game content, and the company has also released stand-alone holiday and promotional versions of the game.

Angry Birds, the game, was eventually praised by critics for its success at leveraging a combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price into a viable franchise with long-term potential for profit. The game’s popularity has led to the release of Angry Birds games for personal computers and gaming consoles, created a market for merchandise featuring the Angry Birds characters, a 2016 feature-length animated film, a sequel to said film, and several seasons of television cartoons. The Angry Birds series had a combined tally of over four billion downloads across all platforms, as of January 2018, including special editions. After its release, the original game was called “one of the most mainstream games out in 2010”, “one of the great runaway hits of 2010”, and “the largest mobile app success the world has seen as of 2011”.