On February 21, Rovio Entertainment released a tweet remarking that on February 23, they would be taking the original Angry Birds off of the Google Play Store. According to the Angry Birds Wiki, the original Angry Birds was released on December 11, 2009. This means that after almost 14 years of play, the game is finally meeting its end.
The success of this game and franchise has been well-known since the game first blew up. In a thank you note written by the Rovio team in April of 2022, they note that as company, they had achieved a collective 5 billion downloads for their games. Out of those 5 billion, the first billion were achieved by the original Angry Birds back in 2012. The legacy of the game is undeniable. Not only was Angry Birds Rovio’s first billion downloads, but it was also the first mobile game to hit 1 billion downloads at all. Even to this day, The Gamer notes that it is still the 16th most downloaded mobile game of all time, even compared to more modern juggernauts such as Candy Crush and Among Us.
Many fans were confused as to why the Rovio team was taking down such an iconic game, to which their Senior Community Manager, Shawn Beckelew, answered in the Rovio Gaming Discord. He reiterated what the initial Rovio tweet stated, noting that the original Angry Birds is taking away focus from their other projects. He also mentioned that in order for the company to grow, they needed to allow their other games to gain more attention in order to keep them from being pigeonholed into a certain image.
Although Angry Birds is ending, there will be solace in knowing its fourteen-year legacy will live on with those who have enjoyed it in the past and the new games that will come in the future.