The Flappy Bird start screen.
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Flappy Bird gets an update after 50M downloads

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 1 min

[Update: Creator Dong Nguyen tweeted he is pulling the app down.] The lone developer of the mobile smash hit Flappy Bird has released an update that fixes the problems that have frustrated many players.

Updated Flappy Bird screen
Updated Flappy Bird screen

The new update slows down the game and makes it easier to fly through the narrow gaps between vertical pipes. That’s an important change as the free Flappy Bird app on iOS and Android has been downloaded an estimated 50 million times in a very short period, making it one of the most successful mobile games of all time.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.