Mobile games come and go. But few elicit the kinds of reactions that flooded social media when Flappy Bird suddenly disappeared. After all, they were just getting into it and wanted more. We look at what made this game so exciting, the reasons for its disappearance, and whether you could be playing this game again soon.
This Flappy Bird game, which was first available on the Apple Store in 2013, featured a bird called Faby that was trying to fly between pipes without hitting them. The bird continuously flew in a downward direction. As such, the player's role was to tap on the screen to help the bird ascend if this meant that Faby would not hit a pipe. Every time the bird made it through a set of pipes, the player would get a point. But if the bird hit the ground or a pipe, the game would end.
That was it - just gauge the distance between the pipes, watch out for the ground, and keep tapping to avoid these obstacles. It was a dream come true for many players. As such, it became quite popular, prompting the developer, Dong Nguyen, to release it in the Google Play store at the start of 2014.
Every game can be a hit or a miss or can fall somewhere between the two. Many games actually fall between these extremes, somehow sailing by and making do with the market share that they get. But Flappy Bird was an obvious hit, so much so that it became the most downloaded game in the app store by early 2014. What was pushing this interest?
While Flappy Bird had a lot to offer the market and was quickly growing people, it faced several setbacks that resulted in its fall, as follows:
What's more, the developer had not anticipated the kind of attention that came with being an overnight success. This fame, combined with the concerns over the addictive nature of his game, brought on a lot of stress, pushing him to make a decision that did not bode well with many players - in February 2014, he removed the game from app stores.
There have been several indications that the game will soon be back in 2025, not just in app stores but also on platforms such as Telegram. Players are eager to see whether this new release will be just as exciting as the 2014 version.
