Flappy Bird, a mobile game that was developed by Vietnam-based developer Dong Nguyen, was released. It was published by .GEARS Studios, a small, independent game developer also based in Vietnam.
The game that has a side-scrolling format in which the player controls a bird to fly between rows of green pipes without coming into contact with them. The developer created the game in several days using 2D retro style graphics that include several classic Mario design aspects.
The game was released on May 24, 2013 but received a sudden rise in popularity in early 2014. It was criticized for its level of difficulty and alleged plagiarism in graphics and game mechanics, while other reviewers found it addictive. It was the most downloaded free game in the iOS App Store. During this period, its developer claimed that he was earning $50,000 a day from in-app advertisements.
Flappy Bird was removed from both Apple's App Store and Google Play by its creator on February 10, 2014, due to guilt over what he considered to be its addictive nature. The game's popularity and sudden removal caused phones with it pre-installed to be put up for sale for high prices. With the demand still high, similar games also became popular on the iTunes App Store. But both Apple and Google have removed games from their app stores for being too similar to the original.