Flappy Bird collects $50K per day in ad revenue

Mobile game Flappy Bird pulls in an average of $50,000 per day in revenue generated from in-app ads, creator Dong Nguyen told The Verge.

Flappy Bird, known for its minimalistic yet challenging controls, has been downloaded 50 million times since it launched for iOS last September and for Android last month. Players are tasked with propelling a tiny bird through a maze of pipes by tapping on the screen, the objective being to rack up as high a score as possible. If the bird hits a pipe or the ground, the game restarts.

Nguyen told The Verge he built Flappy Birds over the course of several nights after getting home from work.

"The reason Flappy Bird is so popular is that it happens to be something different from mobile games today, and is a really good game to compete against each other," Nguyen said. "People in the same classroom can play and compete easily because [Flappy Bird] is simple to learn, but you need skill to get a high score."

The developer also stated he has no plans to update Flappy Bird's gameplay or change it in any way, noting that a sequel is possible. For now he will focus on Flappy Bird as well as other mobile titles from his studio DotGears, tap-based reflex-testing games Shuriken Block and Super Ball Juggling.

"Flappy Bird has reached a state where anything added to the game will ruin it somehow, so I'd like to leave it as is," he says "I will think about a sequel but I'm not sure about the timeline."