15 years ago, mobile gaming was still in its relative infancy. While portable consoles had existed for decades by the late 2000s, such as the Game Boy, Nintendo DS, and the PlayStation Portable, those platforms were often still connected to home console franchises and required cartridges to play. With the advent of social media and concise, powerful technology, many companies began making phones into universal devices designed for calls as well as photography, email, videography, and gaming. It was on these early smartphones, such as the iPhone, that mobile gaming truly exploded into popularity with the release ofAngry Birdsin December 2009.
Angry Birds’ Gameplay and Story Explained
Developed by the Finnish game development company Rovio Entertainment,Angry Birdswas a simple yet highly addictive game. The premise ofAngry Birdswas that a horde of green pigs steal several eggs from a flock of birds with the intention of eating them. Enraged, the birds begin to attack the pigs, who defend themselves by building crude structures out of planks, glass, stone, and garbage. As players progress through the game, they unlock other types of birds beyond the common Red Bird, such as a speedy Yellow Bird and an exploding Black Bird. The pigs do not defend themselves and can only survive if the player fails to eliminate them all with their limited number of birds per stage.
Angry Birds’ gameplay may be its most critical feature. To attack the pigs,birds must be launched at the pigs’ structures via a slingshot. Instead of simply clicking buttons or using a joystick to attack the pigs, players have to drag their finger against the screen to pull back the sling and aim it to determine the best place for the bird to crash into the pigs. Each birds’ unique abilities will change how players aim and launch the bird with the slingshot, with the Yellow Bird being able to fly farther than the slingshot can fire and the Big Brother Bird being able to go only short distances. At times, players may gain access to the gigantic Mighty Eagle, which will take out most pigs and structures on a single stage at once if fired correctly.
The originalAngry Birdsgame was Rovio’s 52nd game developed in only six years, and helped the young company avoid bankruptcy.
The Immediate Success of Angry Birds
From the momentAngry Birdslaunched on iOS and Maemo devices, the app proved to be a wild success both critically and financially. Critics praised the game for its accessible controls, cute graphics, and fun, addictive gameplay. By October 2010, nearly a year afterAngry Birds’ initial release, 12 million copies of the game were sold via the Apple App Store and Nokia Ovi Store.Angry Birdsconsistently remained at the top of app stores’ paid apps charts, which motivated Rovio to release several updates for the game for several years. This near instantaneous success led to Rovio developing numerous spinoff games ofAngry Birds, such asAngry Birds SeasonsandAngry Birds Rio, with the two formingtheAngry Birds Trilogyalongside the original game.
Motivated byAngry Birds’ praise and financial success, Rovio quickly began developing more spinoff games to expand the growingAngry Birdsfranchise. This first started withAngry Birds SeasonsandRiobut continued with the Facebook exclusiveAngry Birds Friends,Angry Birds Space, andBad Piggies, wherein gamers got to play as the green pigs for the first time. Meanwhile, the originalAngry Birdsgames were ported to video games consoles such asAngry Birds Trilogyon the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, and Wii U. Rovio even gotAngry Birdsto crossover with some of pop culture’s biggest franchises, includingAngry Birds Star WarsandAngry Birds Transformers.
OverAngry Birds’ 15-year-long history, 29Angry Birdsvideo games have been released with the latest,Angry Birds Journey, releasing in 2022.
Angry Birds’ Expansion to Other Mediums
While Rovio worked on numerous updates to the originalAngry Birdsand produced several spinoff games, it also worked on expanding the franchise to other mediums, beginning with the animated short movieWreck the Halls, which aired on Nickelodeon in 2011. Since then,Angry Birdshas been adapted into several animated series, includingAngry Birds Toons,Angry Birds: Summer Madness, andAngry Birds Mystery Island. Development on anAngry Birdsmovie officially began in 2012. Speculation about a film in production had already spread by 2011, leading the web company Rooster Teeth to release the live action parody trailerAngry Birds: The Movie, garnering over 26 million views to date.
In 2016, Columbia Pictures andRovio Entertainment finally releasedThe Angry Birds Movieas an animated comedy film. It was the most expensive Finnish produced film at the time and grossed over $350 million worldwide, becoming the seventh highest-grossing video game film to date. WhileThe Angry Birds Moviereceived mixed reviews, its financial success led to the release ofThe Angry Birds Movie 2in 2019, coinciding with the franchise’s 10th anniversary. DespiteThe Angry Birds Movie 2only earning over $150 million worldwide, production onThe Angry Birds Movie 3was officially announced in May 2024.
Angry Birds Books and Attractions Explained
In 2012, Rovio opened Angry Birds Land in the Finland amusement park Särkänniemi and later brought the attraction to Malaysia’s Johor Bahru City Centre in 2014. That same year, Rovio and the American comic book company IDW Publishing produced a three-year-long run ofAngry Birds Comicsmade up of 27 issues in total. In 2017, the comic strip site GoComics began producingAngry Birdsstripsbased onThe Angry Birds Movie, which concluded in 2020. In coordination with the franchise’s 15th anniversary,Angry Birdswill once again appear in two comic books in the style of the originalAngry Birdsclassic comics.
The Legacy and Impact of Angry Birds
TheAngry Birdsfranchise has become one of the most prolific and successful video game franchises of all time. By 2015, all of theAngry Birdsgames were downloaded over 3 billion times, becoming one of the most purchased game series of all time.Angry Birds’ official sequel,Angry Birds 2, has since been downloaded over 360 million times and generated over $500 million alone worldwide. TheAngry Birdsproperty launched Rovio into becoming one of the world’s most valuable gaming companies in the world, as shown whenSega acquired theAngry Birdscreator for $776 millionin 2023. Today, all of Rovio’s games throughout its 21-year-long lifespan have been downloaded over 5 billion times collectively across numerous platforms.
Angry Birds' simple yet addictive gameplaynot only sparked the success of Rovio as a company but mobile gaming as a whole. It helped ensure that mobile gaming had a chance to succeed against the PC and home video game console giants that had reigned supreme for decades. Other mobile developers and games such asPlants vs. ZombiesandClash of Clanswould go on to utilize similar strategies and see similar fame as Rovio; nevertheless, mobile games seldom reach the heights ofAngry Birds. With its fun art design and accessible gameplay to play on the go or at home,Angry Birdshas become not only one of the most successful video games of all times, but one of the most successful properties created in the 21st century.
Angry Birds
“Lemme tell ya, these ain’t no ordinary finches we’re talkin' about. These here are the Angry Birds, the ones that are gonna kick you in the nads. And they’re the ones on your side. They must be from Galapadapados, or sumptin'” – Col. Angus, Bird Expert. You know you’re able to trust him.The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake! Step in to help them from their porcine peril. Jaakko Iisalo, Abstraction Games, Rovio Entertainment, and Chillingo bring you a thrilling, fast-paced action game for mobile devices.Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Bird’s eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs' fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 63 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy. Protect wildlife, or play Angry Birds!
