Angry Birds
The Full Untold Story: From World Domination to Tragic Greed
In 2011, the game Angry Birds became extremely popular worldwide. You’ve probably played it yourself. They created various games, merchandise, and even movies, making millions of dollars from them.
However, by 2019, the company suddenly started laying off employees. From that point onward, things started going downhill. It’s possible that this was karma for the original concept.
The reason is that the concept inside the game Angry Birds wasn’t entirely Rovio’s original idea.
In April 2009, a game called Crush the Castle was released. In that game, players had to use a catapult to throw rocks at structures made of wood, where enemies were hiding.
Eight months later, in December 2009, the company Rovio released the Angry Birds game. It was clearly a copy of that game concept, but in almost every other aspect, it was much better. The graphics, the differences between levels, the points earned for killing every enemy, and the points received for saving unused birds made it very easy for players to score high and feel satisfied.
The game had five birds with special abilities and a memorable soundtrack that stuck in your mind. This made Angry Birds rapidly capture global attention.
But now, where is Angry Birds? Why isn’t it popular anymore? Is it because it’s more basic compared to today’s games? No, there are much more basic games that are popular nowadays. So, what’s the reason? Let’s talk about it.
Before Angry Birds, Rovio had created 51 games, but none of them were successful. Yet, Angry Birds became the number one paid app in 60 countries within just about two months. They took full advantage of that moment.
They created various versions like Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space, and Angry Birds Star Wars. This led to millions of paid downloads, making Angry Birds the number one paid app on the Apple App Store. By the end of the first year, they had earned $10 million.
However, players wanted more. Rovio said, “Since fans want plush toys, we will provide them,” and they released merchandise. Within four months of the announcement, they sold 60,000 Angry Birds soft toys. Gradually, this became the highest-selling paid app.
Angry Birds also added Mighty Eagle microtransactions, allowing players to pay money to clear entire levels. Celebrities like Justin Bieber promoted it. By 2011, Angry Birds earned $100 million. By the end of the year, the number of employees grew from 28 to 224.
Six months later, this mobile game series reached one billion downloads, making it the first game to achieve this and earning a Guinness World Record. By the end of 2012, their revenue doubled again.
Afterward, a significant problem arose. The game became stale. Even though Rovio created many versions, they kept the basic concept the same for more than three years. As a result, the next year, profits decreased compared to before. Angry Birds dropped to the 59th position in the App Store.
They tried a new feature and released Angry Birds Go at the end of 2013. It was essentially a copy of Mario Kart, but people liked it a lot. Reviews said, “It’s really fun, a well-designed game.” Professional reviews rated it 7/7. On Reddit, people said this was their favorite Angry Birds game.
Rovio continued experimenting. They released Angry Birds Epic, an RPG version, which also received good reviews. Since the franchise had changed very little since 2009, critics said this new RPG was a good change. Players even said it was the best RPG Rovio had made. This new approach worked well for the company.
However, a problem arose: this new game didn’t sell merchandise like the original slingshot game did. Merchandise sales dropped, and total revenue decreased. By 2014, profits fell by 73%, down to $10 million. When the Angry Birds hype faded, Rovio laid off 110 employees, which was about a quarter of the staff.
They tried another experiment called Angry Birds Pop, but it wasn’t successful. On a Reddit post asking “What’s the worst Angry Birds game?” many mentioned Pop.
Rovio then returned to basics, releasing Angry Birds 2 as an official sequel. However, many said this was even worse than the original. It was filled with microtransactions, and fans didn’t like it.
“This game is really annoying. You always have to spend money. Even if you play well, you can’t win without gems, making it very hard.”
Also, the original game’s appealing charm was missing, so people didn’t enjoy it. However, because it was heavily monetized, Angry Birds 2 became Rovio’s highest-grossing game. Paradoxically, Rovio suffered a huge loss that year—€15 million. One-third of employees, over 200 people, were laid off.
At first glance, it seemed like Angry Birds was dead. But then the company gave a surprise comeback. Rovio secretly spent three years and $73 million to make The Angry Birds Movie. It was a risky bet, but with a good cast and fun story, it succeeded. With a $70 million budget, they earned over $350 million.
This brought the game back into the spotlight. People replayed the old game. They created Angry Birds theme parks. Media called 2016 Rovio’s best year, but the quality of games kept declining over time.
Jake Miller, in a video ranking all Angry Birds games, mentioned that the new monetization system started with Angry Birds Action, the first game based on the movie. Many fans believe this marked the end of the original Angry Birds game.
On Reddit, comments about the “worst Angry Birds game” indicated that many disliked the games released after the movie. These include Angry Birds Blast (basically like Candy Crush) and the extremely boring Angry Birds Evolution.
Still, the revenue from Angry Birds 2 increased by 147% in 2018. This allowed Rovio to fund a second movie. However, their $65 million investment was not as profitable. Forbes reported that Angry Birds Movie 2 was considered the worst of the series by many viewers. Rotten Tomatoes critics called it an inferior sequel, and viewers found it boring. Still, the movie earned $82 million.
During that time, Rovio made an unusual decision. Although old games didn’t need much maintenance, they stopped updating them. Later, without any explanation, they removed classic apps, including the original Angry Birds, from the App Store.
People were furious. They made videos saying, “Angry Birds is Dead.” Comments like “Where are they?” and hashtags like #BringBack2012 trended on Twitter. The backlash was so severe that Rovio apologized. They explained that they removed old games because maintaining updates was difficult.
After the backlash, Rovio announced they would rebuild Angry Birds Classics. In 2022, it was re-released on the App Store for $0.99 without in-game purchases, under the name Rovio Classics: Angry Birds. This made it harder for people to find. The purpose was to push users toward more profitable new games.
Many players realized what Rovio was doing. They believed Rovio deleted the old games to force players to play modern, Candy Crush-like games. Fans felt Rovio hated the games that made them famous, hence the removal. Rovio admitted this, explaining that they renamed and reorganized the classic games to protect their wider game portfolio sales. They then asked fans to continue supporting new slingshot games like Angry Birds 2.
Fans responded, “We want the old games back.” The reason was that the new games were extremely psychologically manipulative and full of microtransactions. People weren’t willing to spend money. As a result, new game development seemed to slow down. Angry Birds Classic was the final release from 2022.
In 2023, Rovio was acquired by SEGA, which significantly damaged the company’s reputation. A recent tweet said: “I still love Angry Birds. But its current state is final. I’m thinking of muting this franchise. I still enjoy the parts I love, but seeing it this way is very sad.”
Despite all this, Angry Birds isn’t over. They have already announced a third movie. However, since the entire franchise is in decline, it will be interesting to see how it performs. The release date is December 23, 2026.
No matter what, Angry Birds is a very successful concept. However, because of money-related issues, Rovio couldn’t properly maintain it. They made a lot of money, and that was exactly what they needed