15 things you didn’t know about Angry Birds! (List)

Learn them here!

1. Rovio Entertainment is the Finnish game developer responsible for the Angry Birds franchise. The game’s major inspiration reportedly came from a sketch of stylized wingless birds. The game centered around the concept of launching birds at pigs that were encased within all types of structures.

2. The first game officially launched in December 2009 on Apple’s iOS platform. The game became so huge that it made its way over to other smartphone devices (Android, Windows Phone and Symbian). The game soon made its way on over to home video game consoles and PC’s. So far, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased/downloaded from Apple’s App Store.

3. A Finnish TV cartoon series was actually created and based on this massive franchise. The show delves into the rivalry between the birds and the piggies. One season of the show (52 episodes long) have been shown from March 2013 till present time. A 2011 Nickelodeon special (Angry Birds: Wreck The Halls) was shown, plus an Angry Birds Space animated special also aired in March 2012.

4. One other media avenue that this mobile gaming franchise has managed to find its way into is books.

5. The first Angry Birds managed to be so so successful that it led to the development/release of sequels.

6. The piggies that gamers had so much fun demolishing ended up getting their own spin-off game – Bad Piggies. The objective of this game is to control the piggies while trying to build contraptions that are capable of stealing the Angry Birds’ eggs.

7. There’s always bound to be a flood of copycats and parodies after one franchise makes it big.

8.  The birds/piggies are all over shirts, boxers, sweatpants, hats etc. In 2012, a company called Olvi manufactured soft drinks based on the Angry Birds franchise. The flavors that ultimately came from this soft drink deal are:

• Tropic
• Paradise
• Lagoon
• Space-Comet

9. The Angry Birds have popped up across the world as theme park attractions. Two separate attractions opened up in China (The Window of the World in Changsha) and Finland (The Särkänniemi Adventure Park). An official Angry Birds theme park is rumored to be officially opening by May 2014 at Johor Baharu City Centre in Malaysia.

10. The famous wingless birds of the Angry Birds series have been formed into plush toys that everyone has access to. Most of these toys focus on the main series, but there are several other toys based on the game’s many spinoffs (Angry Birds Star Wars). Check out all the toys currently being sold on the Angry Birds Online Shop.

11. The latest figures I could find suggest that the annual profits of Rovio – based largely on Angry Birds – have passed $70 million. In 2012 they made $200 million in revenue. There were rumours that Zynga wanted to buy them out for over $2 billion.

12. The incredible success of Angry Birds didn’t come at as high a cost as you might think. Apparently it cost not much more than $100,000 to make the game. 4 people made it and they spent 8 months on it, because it wasn’t classed as a high priority project for the developer Rovio. After it was released things moved more quickly. It only took 2 and a half hours to get to the top spot in the App Store charts.

13. Some of the celebrities to have admitted a penchant for the game include Conan O’Brien, Angelina Jolie, Kylie Minogue, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, John Hamm, Justin Bieber, Pete Wentz and Anna Kendrick. And those are only the ones who have admitted to being addicted to the game.

14. Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio’s official spokesman, has the job title ‘Mighty Eagle’.

15. It has been estimated – and I’ll confess right now that I have no idea how they even worked this figure out – that people all over the planet spend 200 million hours a day playing Angry Birds. If you think about it, that is quite a lot of time really.