Flappy Bird

A simple yet addictive casual mobile game

Flappy Bird is a mobile game that once created a worldwide phenomenon. With its simple yet challenging gameplay, Flappy Bird has attracted a large number of players and become one of the most addictive games of the decade.

The game was developed from 2013 to early 2014 by a Vietnamese indie game developer Dong Nguyen.

Revenue model

Flappy Bird generated revenue by displaying ads within the game. A relatively simple revenue model but during its peak, Flappy Bird was earning around $50,000/day, equivalent to $1M/month, as shared by the author in an interview with The Verge.

Marketing strategy

Flappy Bird was released on 2 largest app stores: App Store and Google Play. The game was not heavily advertised before becoming famous, but mainly through word of mouth on social media. From May to the end of October 2013, the game was still not well known, but from November 2013, the author noticed a sudden spike in the number of players but could not figure out the exact reason.

Other information

• Flappy Bird was removed from the App Store and Google Play in February 2014 after the author announced that the game had put too much pressure on his life.
• Before being removed, Flappy Bird had reached over 50 million downloads along with a total of 47,000 reviews, topping the charts on both app stores in many countries around the world.