Flappy Bird among most important apps of decade: US tech publication
CNET has named Flappy Bird, a mobile game developed by a Vietnamese coder, among the 25 most impactful apps of the decade.
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A phone with a screen shot of mobile game Flappy Bird. Photo by VnExpress/Tuan Hung.
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The game, created by Hanoian Nguyen Ha Dong, was released on the iOS App Store in May 2013. Suddenly, in early 2014 it became a global phenomenon as downloads went through the roof.
With more than 50 million players, it became one of the year's hottest app despite being an extremely difficult game.
Dong, 34, said he had made the game available for free and hoped to earn some money from advertising, but ended up earning an estimated $50,000 a day.
He took the game down in February 2014 saying it got too many people addicted.
The game is deceptively simple: Users tap smartphone screens to make a bird fly through gaps in pipes to score points. Anytime the bird hits a pipe or drops to the ground, the game ends.
After its removal people were unsuccessfully putting their phone for sale on Ebay for $100,000 saying it still had the game, CNET said.
The other 24 apps in the U.S.-centric list include usual suspects like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tinder/Grindr/Bumble, Google Maps/Apple Maps, Uber/Lyft, Facebook Messenger/WhatsApp, Netflix, Google Pay/Apple Pay, Google Assistant/Siri/Alexa, and Amazon.
