The rise and fall of flappy bird

Flappy Bird, a legend in its own time. A game that requires no skills, has no discernable strategy to win, and is as addictive as crack cocaine. Flappy Bird has all the makings of an app store fan favorite, but why then, does everyone hate it so much?

The simple Super Mario-esque game became an overnight sensation all over the world, topping the app charts in over 100 countries. It racked up hundreds of thousands of reviews (a high percentage of them negative reviews) that put it on par with classic apps like Gmail.

This game reached a lot of people, and the reaction greatly varied. Needlessly hard to play, many users started to believe that success wasn’t determined by the player, but by computer bots, or that the whole app was just a PR stunt for a larger game studio.

Following months of hate mail, game creator Dong Nguyen announced via Twitter that he would be taking the game down for good the next day on February 9th, 2013. Since then, hype has slowed down, but it still may be some time before we are ready to forget Flappy Bird.

Have you played Flappy Bird? If so, what was your experience? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to like and share!

Infographic courtesy of Startapp

Flappy Bird image courtesy of Forbes