Original Angry Birds gets delisted from Google Play Store!

One of the most popular and profitable mobile games of all time has been permanently withdrawn from the Google Play Store following the company's decision. Rovio removed the original version of Angry Birds, because it significantly affected the other free-to-play titles in the series!

Angry Birds was rebranded as Rovio Classics: Angry Birds for Android devices and remained a paid title throughout its 10+ year history, despite being followed by over 10 new Angry Birds games from Rovio Entertainment.

The withdrawal of the original Angry Birds from the Google Play Store will not affect those who have already purchased the game and keep it in their Google Account library if they have it installed on their device. This means they will be able to install and play again whenever they want.

When it comes to the iOS version of the game, Rovio takes a different tack. Instead of withdrawing, he proceeded to change its name in order not to appear as the first result of a possible search for the term "Angry Birds" in the App Store. The new name is Red's First Flight.

Rarely do we see a company so openly surrender that a pay-to-play title is less profitable than free-to-play games. In practice, Rovio is retiring Angry Birds in hopes that participating gamers will switch to one of its other games (Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Journey, Angry Birds Blast, etc.) and over time spend money on in-apps their transactions. .

Regardless, Angry Birds wrote its own epic story with sales exceeding 12 million copies in its first year and spawning a multi-billion dollar industry with other video games, TV series, toys, movies, theme parks, etc.