Nintendo like graphics in today's world of pixel perfect technology where resolution is half the battle won? You heard right! Enter Flappy Bird - an app with graphics reminiscent of Mario Bros and a look and feel of old gaming favorites.
Flappy Bird is the app that rose to the hilt of success and came with an inexplicable end. Those who know tried Flappy Bird will tell you about its addiction and those who don't, unfortunately you will no longer be able to try it. As of Feb. 8, this app was taken off from the Apple App store as also Google Play. Flappy Bird enjoyed being the number one free app in the App Store in over 53 countries and boasted of over 50 million downloads! 16 million tweets speak of the success of Flappy Bird.
Dong Nguyen, a developer from Vietnam developed and designed the app in two days. After making an appearance on App store in May 2013, the game started making news on Twitter. After a few quiet months, the app suddenly started being spoken of all over twitter in November 2014. Reviews started coming in and the app started becoming popular. By December 2014 the app was ranked 14th in the Family category of the App store and was also available on Google Play by popular demand. People were hooked!
The success of this app is highly attributed to the talk and popularity that it gained on twitter. Tweets of the game started generating memes and images of their frustration, addiction and love-hate relationship of the app. Nguyen played his part and re tweeted some of the humorous ones, replied to tweets and kept the buzz going. By February this buzz had peaked and the app was ranked number 1 free game app with Apple acknowledging the app's success on twitter as well.
Then as suddenly as it came, Nguyen announced that he would be taking the app off App Store and Google Play because he couldn't take it anymore. The tweets are still pouring in and people have started selling phones with the app installed for enormous sums on EBay. Such is the strength of social media and word of mouth! A simple app with a certain addictive front to it can go viral and take the world in frenzy. Can Flappy Bird be replicated? Probably not. The app enjoyed timing, circumstance and a social media trend that could go viral only for something new that now comes out.
Here's a small consolation for those who didn't get a chance to install the app - you can check it out on its Internet Browser version. Please click the following link to begin the addiction! https://www.crazygames.com/game/flappy-bird#addthistoyourwebsite
