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Rovio sells 6.5M copies of Angry Birds without advertising once

I got to meet the creators of Angry Birds back at E3 earlier this year, but because of our busy schedules, didn't get too much of a chance to really talk with them in-depth about their experience on the App Store so far. Fortunately, GamesBeat has done just that, providing a nice profile of Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka and Mikael Hed, the two Finnish creators of one of the App Store's most popular titles. They're actually mobile app veterans -- while Angry Birds is their biggest hit as a company, they've also developed for lots of other groups, including Real Networks and Electronic Arts.

The game was created to be casual, open to anyone to play, and use some really memorable characters that would resonate with anyone who picked it up. They accomplished those goals -- the game has found a surprising following around the world, and almost everyone who owns an iPhone recognizes the birds and pigs characters. A US$4.99 iPad version has also taken off, and Rovio plans to bring the app to lots of other mobile devices as well. The growth has been entirely organic, too -- they haven't spent a single cent on advertising the game, instead relying completely on word-of-mouth and Apple's own promotional tools.

And while their success is already quite widespread, the two say their goals are even bigger than what they've accomplished so far: they hope to eventually see 100 million paid downloads. Definitely possible -- it's interesting to see how iPhone-created brands are growing so quickly.

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I got to meet the creators of Angry Birds back at E3 earlier this year, but because of our busy schedules, didn't get too much of a chance...
 

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Angry Bird

Not even one year later and Rovio has sold over 200 million copies! Amazing growth.

http://angrybirdsrio.org/game/play-angry-birds-online/

May 25 2011 at 7:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevin Warwick

Finally, I found a website that I can play Angry Birds online for free and I would like to share with all of you.

You can play it here: http://www.angrybirdsnow.com/play/angry-birds-online/]Angry Birds Online

Hope that you like it, too :)

March 29 2011 at 4:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Kevin Warwick's comment
Kevin Warwick

Sorry for the mistyping error ! Here is the link : http://www.angrybirdsnow.com/play/angry-birds-online/

Sorry for any inconvenience !

March 29 2011 at 4:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason Trout

Quick question for anyone who might know. The post says "...they haven't spent a single cent on advertising the game, instead relying completely on word-of-mouth and Apple's own promotional tools."

I am curious, what are Apple's promotional tools?

Thanks to anyone who might be able to chime in .

August 19 2010 at 10:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sandymull

Love the simplicity and the ability to pick it up anytime you have a few extra mins.
Pretty interesting finding the 14 golden eggs. I am now waiting for part 2 , " revenge of the pigs" ... Lol

August 17 2010 at 6:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bird Leader

We've created a pretty cool Angry Birds fansite that will definitely help you in your quest to defeat those evil piggies! We have the most thorough walkthroughs available anywhere.

http://www.angrybirdsnest.com

August 17 2010 at 2:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
david0296

I took me forever, but I managed to get 3 stars on every level. It's an extremely frustrating but satisfying game. I am curious why the iPhone version is 99¢, but the iPad version is $4.99. They are virtually the same game, just scaled up in size. That hardly merits a $4.00 price hike.

August 17 2010 at 12:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to david0296's comment
J Dogg

"As in Helsinki, Sweden..."

August 17 2010 at 12:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SJS

awesome app -- still waiting on more levels in the iPad HD version though

August 17 2010 at 12:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to SJS's comment
totoro

Yeah, what is up with that? Where are our big fat red bird levels?

August 17 2010 at 2:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
svgdckonktwaai

Huge Angry Birds add on http://www.slidetoplay.com/ today as well.

August 17 2010 at 11:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Marc

With more than 32millions in revenue for only one game of all the games they have is not bad. I don't feel bad to pirated them.

August 17 2010 at 11:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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