Rovio’s Entertainment CMO, Peter Vesterbacka, announced that company’s hit game “Angry Birds” has become the fastest growing game in history, scoring 500 million downloads in less than two years since its December 2009 release. It took Rovio just two years to take the mobile world by storm, starting from the iPhone, and then expanding to Android, Windows Phone 7 and even desktop platforms. In terms of mobile gaming, Angry Birds is second to none.
Truth be told, the Finns have a long and splendid history in the mobile industry, so Rovio’s success should be no surprise. Angry Birds has become a popular culture phenomenon, as they attract casual gamers and enthusiasts alike, teens and middle aged businessmen, basically men and women from all kinds of environments.
Andry Birds fans around the world have so far played a total of 200,000 years of Angry Birds, with 300 million minutes of daily playing time. Moreover, more than 266 billion levels of Angry Birds have been played, with 400 billion birds launched into action and over 44 billion Stars collected in the process.
Rovio is about to open the world’s first official Angry Birds retail shop in Helsinki. Angry Birds merchandise is a continuously growing business, and Rovio has already shipped more than 10 million Angry Birds toys worldwide. The company has also launched print publishing operations and delivered the first Angry books.
According to the Guardian, Rovio is also developing a big-screen version of Angry Birds, reportedly hiring former Marvel chairman David Maisel to produce a film to be released in 2015.
