

Angry Birds cross 500 million downloads - vilpponen
http://www.arcticstartup.com/2011/11/02/breaking-angry-birds-cross-500-million-downloads

======
technoslut
I've never understood why or how Angry Birds had become such a phenomenon. It
managed to really separate itself from a plethora of mobile games and seems
like it's the modern day version of Pac-Man. I've even saw a Today interview
where Dick Cheney says that he plays it on the iPad. I would've thought with
the plush toys and Chrome OS commercials that they would soon jump the shark.

Congratulations to Rovio for creating a game that's universally loved by
people of all ages.

~~~
jschulenklopper
> I've never understood why or how Angry Birds had become such a phenomenon

See [http://www.mauronewmedia.com/blog/2011/02/why-angry-birds-
is...](http://www.mauronewmedia.com/blog/2011/02/why-angry-birds-is-so-
successful-a-cognitive-teardown-of-the-user-experience/) for a detailed
analysis from a design perspective. Great read. It doesn't explain all the
"why and how"-s, but does provide some interesting clues.

~~~
technoslut
Thank you for the link. It was extremely interesting. This explains why my two
favorite games on iOS (Canabalt and The Impossible Game) were never quite as
popular as Angry Birds.

~~~
vorbby
Man, I love The Impossible Game. Have you beat all four levels? I'm stuck on
the "let's flip all this shit upside down randomly" level.

~~~
technoslut
I haven't got past the first level, but that is the reasoning behind the first
link. Short-term memory only lasts for so long and there is only so many
things you can keep. Angry Birds is something you can play naturally with only
your instincts. For a challenge you have to get three stars.

At its core, both The Impossible Game and Angry Birds are simple, but one is
more successful to past to the next level. If you get one star on Angry By
Birds, you can pass. On The Impossible game you have to have timing and be
aware of what is coming up. I suspect this is the reason why the original
Super Mario Bros. became so popular.

------
nethsix
Not sure how many of those were the 'Lite' (free version). My guess is that
once Angry Birds started getting rave reviews, lots of people started
downloading the Lite version. Still that is a lot of downloads =)

------
startupcto
What's the point of these kind of announcement when there is no data to back
it up? They could have just as well made this up and there's no third party
measurement that can validate their numbers.

Rovio is just milking this cow to the max and until they announced or released
another hit game, it's all a show.

