The "Angry Birds" Obsession

Published on Monday, January 03 2011

Several times recently, when I've been interviewing celebrities at the YH Studio, I noticed them obsessively playing this game on their phones. That game turned out to be "Angry Birds". I had to try it out for myself, and I, along with about 50 million other people worldwide, understand the obsession.

"Angry Birds" isn’t just our new favorite past time -- it’s a phenomenon. Over the holidays, the app broke records with a million downloads a day! Your goal, as one of five birds with unique powers, is to be slingshot into evil pig territory in order to retrieve stolen eggs. You strategically knock down structures and destroy pigs to score points. As the levels grow harder, it also gets harder to restrain your index finger from doing the flinging motion, and the fact that there are 200 million minutes of "Angry Birds" played daily can attest to that.

The game was initially released back in December of 2009, and ever since then has been steadily soaring to the top of the mobile app gaming world. It's gotten so big that stuffed plush angry birds and pigs are flying off toy store shelves.

Even though most of us like it when the birds are angry, a new phenomenon just isn't complete without a viral video, in particular this one which was filmed by the Israeli version of SNL featuring a Peace Treaty between the birds and pigs -- but where is the fun in that?

It is a lot easier to understand the world’s obsession if you have given a go at the "Angry Birds", now available on multiple smart phone devices for your gaming pleasure.