The wildly popular Flappy Bird game has been taken down from app stores by its Vietnam-based creator Dong Nguyen on Feb. 9, 2014.
The games creator gave fans less than 24 hours notice when he tweeted: "I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore."
The game has since been taken down from Apple's app store and Android's Google Play store.
Nguyen reportedly earned $50,000 a day from ads displayed on Flappy Bird and it is not known what the exact reasons were for grounding the game.
Flappy Bird ranked number one on both Apple and Android app stores and has been downloaded over 50 million times.
Users flocked to the app stores to download the Flappy Bird before it was removed. Those who have already downloaded the game can keep playing.
Nguyen also tweeted that he will not be selling Flappy bird to anyone and that his decision to pull the game is not "anything related to legal issues." He tweeted, " I just cannot keep it anymore."
Though he created the game, Nguyen previously expressed how his own game ruined his life. "I can call 'Flappy Bird' is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it."
The game was launched in May 2013, but its popularity soared in mid-January 2014.
Fans of the game are curious as to why the game was removed.
Here are some possible theories:
- For those who played Flappy Bird, you might find a striking resemblance between Nintendo's Mario Bros games with its pixelated pipes and color scheme. Nguyen could have taken the game down before Nintendo waged a legal battle against him, although he did state that it had nothing to do with legal issues.
- The sudden announcement of the game's removal prompted a surge of downloads by users who had not downloaded the game yet. The game was removed, but fans wonder whether a new version of Flappy Bird is to come in the near future.
Flappy Birds is a simple tapping game but is very difficult and addictive. Numerous cheats have cropped up online, advising players on how to jailbreak the game to get higher scores or simply remove the pipes from the top of the screens.
