Stefan was pretty incredulous that Rovio supposedly turned down $2 billion from Zynga but it may have been the smart move as the company today revealed that the Angry Birds game has been downloaded more than 1 billion times.
Rovio made a short video below to thank everyone for the remarkable achievement and I’m sure that the latest version helped. Angry Birds Space was downloaded more than 50 million times in 35 days but the billion-dollar figure takes into account the entire series.
One of the reasons I’ve been impressed with Rovio is that it has been plugging away at mobile gaming for a long time before it hit it big with the Angry Birds franchise. A one-hit wonder isn’t anything new in this industry but Rovio was able to take that success and turn it into a long-term business.
It was able to flip its business model when it brought the series to Android, has smartly moved into merchandising, is seeing success in China and it has definitely found mainstream appeal. Whether you’re in Seoul or San Francisco, it’s not uncommon to see regular people wearing an Angry Birds shirt. It also has cool offices.
I’m not saying that Rovio is guaranteed to be the next Disney but it will definitely be an interesting company to watch in the mobile space. In the meanwhile, let us know what your favorite bird is. I love the big green one in Angry Birds Space.
[Via Rovio]