Angry Birds reaches 500 million downloads, aims higher

If you've ever flung a perturbed-looking bird at a bright green pig, you're not alone: mobile game company Rovio has announced that their Angry Birds game has been downloaded 500 million times in less than two years.

And the company isn't stopping there. Rovio marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka says the company's next goal is to hit the one billion mark. Still, the company is thrilled to reach such a milestone.

"It's more than any game ever before," Vesterbacka said in a Globe and Mail story.

The numbers that go along with having 500 million downloads are pretty impressive, too. All those downloads mean users have played Angry Birds for a total of 200,000 years, and play it for 300 million minutes daily. A total of 400 billion birds have been shot from a slingshot in hopes of dislodging pigs since the game was first released for iPhone on Dec. 11, 2009.

Since its launch, the Angry Birds brand has exploded, being turned into everything from Halloween costumes to sushi. Angry Birds plushies are expected to be one of the top 20 most popular toys this holiday season. The little combative feathered friends will even be making a visit to the International Space Station.

With such a widespread fandom and availability on multiple platforms, it shouldn't be much of a shock that the game continues to sell extremely well amongst all demographics, making Rovio's goal of one billion downloads seem that much more attainable. Having multiple versions of the game now available, including Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio, doesn't hurt either.

The next venture Rovio is embarking on to promote the brand is producing cartoons. It has partnered with an animation studio in Helsinki to create short animations. The most recent video, 'Ham'O'Ween,' was released as part of the Angry Birds Seasons Halloween launch. By Nov. 2, it had racked up over four million views on YouTube.

If watching real people enjoy Angry Birds is more your style, you can check out these people playing some live-action Angry Birds, or watch this kid play Angry Birds for the first time:

(Reuters Photo)