The extinction of ‘Flappy Bird’: the rise and fall of a frustratingly simple mobile game – The Verge

The wild, intense rise and fall of Flappy Bird

2026-01-04T08:24:14-05:00

Flappy Bird was almost preposterously simple. If you ever played the game, even once, you surely remember how it worked, but here's a summary just in case. You were a bird. Your job was to fly, left to right, for as long as possible without crashing into the green Mario-ish pipes coming from both the top and bottom of the screen. Tap the screen to go up, stop tapping to go down. That's it. That's the game.

Nobody, not even Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen, thought those were the ingredients for a smash hit. And yet for a few weeks in 2014, the game was at the top of app stores everywhere - and became something of a cultural phenomenon. Almos …

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Flappy Bird’s original creator says he has nothing to do with the new game

2025-04-29T15:57:05-04:00

The new take on Flappy Bird will include alternate game modes. | Screenshot: The Flappy Bird Foundation

Last week, The Flappy Bird Foundation announced a game called Flappy Bird. But while the group has been framing it as the triumphant return of a classic mobile game, Flappy Bird's original developer, Dong Nguyen isn't calling it a comeback - in fact, he says he's not involved at all.

Nguyen posted as much on X (for the first time since 2017!) this morning, saying he didn't "sell anything." The Flappy Bird Foundation wrote in the announcement it shared with press last week that it had "acquired the rights from Gametech Holdings, LLC," which had secured the trademark from Nguyen, but it doesn't appear as though that was the result of any deal …

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Flappy Bird is coming back

2025-04-29T15:57:37-04:00

A self-described "team of passionate fans committed to sharing the game with the world" says it's acquired the rights to Flappy Bird, the iconic mobile game whose creator took it offline less than a year after it was released. Now, "The Flappy Bird Foundation Group" will relaunch the game on Android and iOS in 2025.

But it's unclear whether the original creator of Flappy Bird, Dong Nguyen, is a part of the game's relaunch. The Verge reached out to Nguyen with a request for comment but didn't immediately hear back. His account on X and the website for his game development company don't show any recent updates. The Flappy Bird Foundation said …

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The sequel to ‘Flappy Bird’ is basically impossible

2014-08-21T12:40:56-04:00

Flappy Bird was a hard game. My high score was eight, and it took a long time to get even that far. When I saw people get scores in the dozens, or even hundreds, I was in awe. That brutal challenge is part of what made the game so infamously addictive, but the follow-up from creator Dong Nguyen might just be a step too far. So far my high score in Swing Copters is one. And I don't see that changing any time soon.

My high score is one

Both aesthetically and mechanically, Swing Copters is a lot like Flappy Bird. The visuals are low-fi pixel art, and you're once again controlling a tiny dude trying to fly past a never-ending barrage of obstacle …

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‘Flappy Bird’ creator teases new game on Twitter

2014-05-15T16:40:36-04:00

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen is moving beyond the feathered friend that brought him massive recognition - he just announced on Twitter that he's building a new game and attached a screenshot to go along with it. There's no other detail on the game yet aside from a small helmeted human being jumping through a small opening into what appears to be a building - it's not all that dissimilar to what you need to do in Flappy Bird, in fact. Polygon notes that Nguyen described the game as "some guy jumping from building to building" in an interview on CNBC.

I am making a new game. So people can forget about Flappy Bird for a while. pic.twitter. …

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‘Flappy Bird’ creator says he is bringing the game back in August

2014-05-14T17:09:41-04:00

The creator of the gaming sensation Flappy Bird now says he is bringing the game back. In an interview with CNBC, Dong Nguyen said the new version would be a multiplayer game that is "less addictive" than its predecessor. Nguyen famously pulled the game from app stores amid worries that the game's millions of fans were spending too much time playing the game.

Flappy Bird, which asks players to navigate a blob-like animal through a fiendishly challenging series of green pipes, became a sensation earlier this year. Its legend only grew when Nguyen removed it from app stores, leading to an army of clones that dominated the charts for weeks. On …

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‘Flappy Bird’ creator says he’s considering bringing his game back

2014-03-11T14:16:01-04:00

It's been just over a month since the creator of the surprisingly popular and exceedingly frustrating mobile game Flappy Bird pulled his creation from the App Store and Google Play. He's kept a fairly low profile since, but Dong Nguyen broke his silence in a big way in a just-published feature interview with Rolling Stone. In the profile, Nguyen reveals that he's "considering" bringing Flappy Bird back, despite the overwhelming crush of attention, criticism, and even threats that the game originally brought him. However, if he does bring the game back, Nguyen says it'll come with a warning imploring players to take a break; last month, the d …

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Code.org turning the ashes of ‘Flappy Bird’ into a phoenix of coding education

2014-02-26T18:56:10-05:00

Flappy Bird code dot org

The wildly simple yet infinitely frustrating game Flappy Bird is no more, though it continues to live on in countless clones. Now Code.org, the non-profit aimed at teaching people how to write code, has created a tool to make your own Flappy Bird game while learning some code at the same time.

Fend off death with ridiculous jet sounds

The lesson takes the form of a puzzle that goes through the actual game mechanics of Flappy Bird step-by-step, from flapping the bird's wings each time you click your mouse, to deciding what happens when your character either hits or misses the large green pipes. At each step along the way, you need to figure o …

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Apple and Google are fighting ‘Flappy Bird’ clones

2014-02-16T14:27:00-05:00

Flappy Bird stock

In the wake of Flappy Bird's demise, an army of clones has risen up to take its place - but Apple and Google may now be preventing that from happening. Currently when you search "flappy" in Google Play or the App Store, you'll see game like Flappy Fish, Flappy Pig, or Splashy Fish pop up. However, several developers are reporting that both Apple and Google have since clamped down on obvious clones, disallowing games that are clearly built to cash in on Flappy Bird's sudden burst of popularity.

On Friday, Ken Carpenter, from studio Mind Juice Media, tweeted that his game Flappy Dragon was rejected by Apple, with the company telling him "we f …

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The weird world of ‘Flappy Bird’ clones

2014-02-11T13:17:32-05:00

Flappy Bird stock 2

Flappy Bird is gone. The mobile gaming sensation was pulled from both the iTunes App Store and Google Play by creator Dong Nguyen, but in its place an army of clones has arrived. A quick search for "flappy bird" in the App Store, for example, brings up names like Splashy Fish, Fly Birdie, City Bird, and Flying Flappy Unicorn Bird.

Most of these games are simply reskinned versions looking to capitalize on the surprising popularity of Flappy Bird, letting you play the same exact game, only with characters like doge or a piece of poo in place of the bird. Soon you'll even be able to play as members of the band Fall Out Boy, and the developers …

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