Flappy Bird game creator removes it from app stores, but it earned $50,000 a day!

If you haven’t downloaded Flappy Bird, the game that raked in $50,000 in average ad revenue every single day (!!!), it may be too late for that. The game’s creator, Dong Nguyen, has removed it from Apple iTunes and Google Play Store. Now when you try downloading it on your iOS device, you’ll be met with a “Try again later,” while the latter will simply offer you alternatives such as Flappy Wings – not Flappy Bird or Flappy Bird Fan App, if you insist.

Flappy Bird was the game that was more addictive than Angry Birds. Don’t be fooled by the name, the mechanics are entirely different. In the Nguyen offering, you simply have to continuously tap the screen to keep the creature flying forward without hitting pipes. It looks so simple at first and that assumption is what will lead to all those anger issues (as demonstrated in the video below) as you slowly start ruining your life in pursuit of a high score.

Our best score after almost 7 hours of playing it was 20. There are bronze, silver, gold and platinum medals to win for your efforts. No hidden levels, no change in scenery. The green pipes are inspired from Super Mario Bros and Flappy Bird is designed around Cheep Cheep the fish which appears in the classic game’s underwater levels. In an interview with The Verge, the developer revealed that the title rakes in $50,000 a day in advertisement revenue.

The game is free to download and play. Popup ads appear on the top part of the screen and these earn the aforesaid ad money. So why is Nguyen killing his source of revenue? While he didn’t quite quote Frankenstein who said “I’ve created a monster,” he did say that it’s ruining his simple life and he hates it now. And we thought there wasn’t anything such as too much success. The developer has tweeted his refusal to sell Flappy Bird, but will continue making games.

For those who haven’t had the chance to download Flappy Bird, we don’t know whether to congratulate you or say you haven’t lived life. The game is sweet poison that will slowly consume you and everything you like doing in your free time. You’re probably better off without it.