59 Fun Facts About Angry Birds

What colour is Matilda, the bird that drops an explosive egg?

White: Matilda, the plump white bird, lays an explosive egg when tapped and then rockets upward; in the films she is voiced by Maya Rudolph.

What have the green pigs stolen from the birds in the original game?

Their eggs: the pigs steal the birds' eggs to eat, which is why the flock hurls itself at the pigs' forts of wood, glass and stone.

What device do players use to launch the birds?

A slingshot: each bird is pulled back in the slingshot and released, and its flight depends on how far and at what angle the band is stretched.

In which year was the original Angry Birds released for mobile devices?

2009: Angry Birds reached the iOS App Store in December 2009, with the Android version following in October 2010.

Which Flash game inspired the physics-based gameplay of Angry Birds?

Crush the Castle, an Armor Games browser title with a trebuchet hurling stones at castles, was the gameplay model; the birds' look came first, from a sketch.

Which designer's sketch of stylised wingless birds gave the game its characters?

Jaakko Iisalo, a Rovio senior designer, drew the wingless, angry-browed birds as a concept proposal, and the team built the game around them.

What real-world event is widely believed to have inspired making the enemies pigs?

The 2009 swine flu pandemic: the H1N1 outbreak was in the news as the team chose an enemy for the birds, and the green pigs are widely taken as a nod to it.

What was the name of the first episode in the original iOS release?

Poached Eggs: the launch episode had three chapters of 21 levels each; Mighty Hoax followed as the first free update in February 2010.

Which special bird from 'Ham 'Em High' can clear any uncompleted level once per hour?

It became the game's first paid in-app purchase, and a Game of Thrones star later voiced the character in the movie.

What is the maximum star rating a player can earn on a level?

Three stars: each level awards one to three stars based on score, with a bonus for every unused bird, so finishing with birds to spare is the route to a full rating.

Rovio said the game had been downloaded how many times by December 2010?

50 million: Rovio announced the figure across all platforms in December 2010, by which point the game was also on Android.

What was the 2022 remake of the original game called at launch?

Rovio Classics: Angry Birds rebuilt the early version of the game in Unity with no microtransactions, and launched on iOS and Android in March 2022.

Under what hashtag did fans campaign for the relisting of the delisted original games?

#BringBack2012: fans used the hashtag to press Rovio to restore the classic games it had pulled from app stores in 2019, and Rovio answered with a remake in 2022.

What colour is Chuck, the fast bird?

Yellow: Chuck is the speedy yellow bird who rockets forward when tapped; Josh Gad voices him in the films.

What does Bomb, the black bird, do?

Explodes: Bomb detonates on impact or when tapped, levelling everything nearby; the film gives him intermittent explosive disorder.

Which small orange bird debuted in Angry Birds Seasons before joining the original game?

Bubbles, the orange bird who inflates to fill space, debuted in Angry Birds Seasons' Ham'o'ween episode in 2011 and joined the original game in the Birdday Party update.

Which green bird has boomerang-like abilities?

Hal, the green toucan-like bird, flies back like a boomerang when tapped; in the 2016 film he is voiced by Anthony Padilla of the YouTube duo Smosh.

Who voices Red in The Angry Birds Movie?

Sudeikis improvised lines to make Red more sympathetic than a simple hothead.

In the 2016 film, Red is sentenced to what after snapping at a customer?

Anger management class: the court sends Red to Matilda's class for hotheads, voiced by Maya Rudolph, where he meets the friends who later join his raid.

What is the name of the pig leader in the movies, known to his subjects as King Mudbeard?

Leonard: Bill Hader voices the scheming pig king, whose subjects call him King Mudbeard; his clumsy assistant Ross is voiced by Tony Hale.

Which Game of Thrones actor voices Bird Island's flying protector in the films?

Peter Dinklage, Tyrion in Game of Thrones, voices the island's faded hero; Sean Penn is in the cast too, grunting as the huge bird Terence.

Which country singer voices Earl, a pig musician, in the first film?

Blake Shelton voices Earl and sings 'Friends' on the film's soundtrack; Charli XCX cameos as the turquoise bird Willow.

Which studio distributed The Angry Birds Movie in 2016?

Sony Pictures released the 2016 film through its Columbia Pictures label; Rovio financed the production itself, an unusual move for a game company.

Roughly how much did The Angry Birds Movie gross worldwide?

$352 million: the 2016 film's worldwide gross made it the highest-grossing Finnish film and, in 2016, the second-biggest video-game adaptation behind Warcraft.

Who voices Zeta, the villain of The Angry Birds Movie 2?

Leslie Jones voices Zeta, the sequel's purple villain, revealed as the jilted fiancée of Bird Island's flying protector; her assistant Debbie is their daughter.

Where does Zeta launch her lava-filled ice balls from in the sequel?

Eagle Island: Zeta fires lava-filled ice balls from her frozen base there at both Bird Island and Piggy Island, forcing the two sides into their first truce.

Silver, Red's love interest in the sequel, is the sister of which bird?

Chuck: Silver is his brainy younger sister, an engineering student voiced by Rachel Bloom who first deems Red incompatible at speed dating.

Which director of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack helmed The Angry Birds Movie 2?

Thurop Van Orman, creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, directed the 2019 sequel, whose 73% Rotten Tomatoes score was then a record for a video-game film.

Angry Birds Space, released in 2012, was promoted with help from which organisation?

NASA: astronaut Don Pettit demonstrated the game's physics in microgravity aboard the International Space Station as part of the 2012 launch promotion.

What new square-shaped character did Angry Birds Space introduce?

Ice Bird: the square, light-blue bird freezes nearby blocks and pigs when detonated, which makes the game's planet gravity fields easier to exploit.

At which landmark did Rovio and T-Mobile erect a 300-foot bird launcher for the 2012 zero-gravity game?

The Seattle Space Needle: T-Mobile, based nearby in Bellevue, hosted the launch stunt there in March 2012, with a 35-foot red bird hung from the giant launcher.

In Angry Birds Star Wars, which character does Red portray?

Luke Skywalker: Red wields a lightsaber as Luke, while the fast bird is Han Solo with a blaster and Bomb is Obi-Wan using the Force.

Which company published the console ports of Angry Birds Star Wars in 2013?

Activision published the 2013 console and handheld ports of Angry Birds Star Wars, whose far higher price than the mobile version drew a backlash.

Bad Piggies, the 2012 spin-off, has players doing what?

Building vehicles for the pigs: players assemble carts and flying machines from crates, wheels, fans and engines to carry a pig to the goal; Rovio built it in Unity.

Angry Birds Rio was a tie-in with an animated film from which studio?

Blue Sky Studios, the Fox-owned animation house behind Ice Age, made Rio; the tie-in game has players freeing caged exotic birds instead of bashing pigs.

What innovation did Angry Birds Rio bring to the series?

Boss levels: Rio was the first game in the series to end chapters with boss fights, against the cockatoo Nigel and Mauro, leader of the marmosets.

The 2015 sequel was soft-launched in Canada with what working title?

Angry Birds: Under Pigstruction was the Canadian soft-launch title of Angry Birds 2, whose full release added spells, randomly dealt bird cards and a competitive Arena mode.

The Seasons game was originally released in October 2010 under what name?

It grew to 29 themed episodes, from Trick or Treat to the Viking-themed Ragnahog in 2016.

Which Japanese company acquired Rovio in 2023?

Sega: the Sonic publisher completed its purchase of Rovio in August 2023 and later put the Angry Birds into Sonic Dash.

Rovio was founded in 2003 under what original name?

Relude: the three founders set it up in 2003 after winning a Nokia-and-HP-sponsored mobile game contest with King of the Cabbage World; it became Rovio Mobile in 2005.

In which Finnish city is Rovio headquartered?

Espoo: Rovio's headquarters sit in the Keilaniemi business district just west of Helsinki; the first official Angry Birds shop opened in Helsinki on 11 November 2011 at 11:11 a.m.

Where did the first official Angry Birds Land theme area open in 2012?

Särkänniemi park in Finland: the Tampere amusement park opened Angry Birds Land in April 2012; an unlicensed launch-the-plush knock-off had opened at Window of the World in Changsha, China, in 2011.

What was the franchise's first animated series, which premiered in 2013?

Angry Birds Toons premiered in March 2013; its 52-episode first season was shown through a channel built into the games themselves.

Which Premier League club put the Angry Birds logo on its shirt sleeve from 2017?

Everton stars including Wayne Rooney also appeared in the YouTube series Angry Birds BirLd Cup.

Which Finnish Formula One driver raced with an Angry Birds-themed helmet in 2012?

Heikki Kovalainen ran an Angry Birds-themed helmet for Caterham in 2012; Rovio also sponsored the Lotus F1 Team that season.

A character designed with Rovio was the official mascot of which 2012 sporting event?

IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship: the 2012 tournament, co-hosted by Finland and Sweden, used Hockey Bird, an Angry Birds-style mascot created with Rovio.

Leaks in 2014 showed which agencies used Angry Birds as a 'leaky app' to gather user data?

The NSA and GCHQ: Snowden documents published in January 2014 showed the US and British agencies harvesting data from 'leaky apps' like Angry Birds; hackers defaced Rovio's site as 'Spying Birds'.

Roughly how much did Rovio's 2023 acquisition by a Japanese publisher cost?

$776 million: the buyer paid about €706 million, or $776 million, for Rovio in a deal completed in August 2023.

Under what new name did the 2022 remake of the original game survive on the App Store after being renamed in 2023?

Red's First Flight: the remake was retitled on iOS in 2023, while its Android version was pulled from Google Play because it outranked Rovio's newer games in search.

Which studio was announced as the distributor of The Angry Birds Movie 3?

Paramount Pictures: the third film was announced with DNEG Animation producing and Paramount distributing, moving the series away from its original distributor.

Piggy Tales, released in 2014, told the pigs' stories in which animation style?

Stop motion: the 2014 first season of Piggy Tales animated its pigs frame by frame in short wordless episodes, unlike the franchise's other CGI shows.

Which channel premiered Real Angry Birds, a nature show inspired by the game, in 2015?

Nat Geo Wild aired Real Angry Birds in 2015, a nature special about genuinely aggressive bird species made under National Geographic's tie-in with Rovio.

What is the name of the summer camp in Angry Birds: Summer Madness?

Camp Splinterwood: Angry Birds: Summer Madness, a 2022 Netflix series, follows a teenage Red and his friends through a summer at this camp.

Angry Birds Mystery Island premiered in 2024 on which streaming platform?

Amazon Prime Video premiered Angry Birds Mystery Island in 2024; it follows a new group of Hatchlings stranded on an uncharted island.

Which comics publisher launched Angry Birds Comics in June 2014, written by Paul Tobin?

IDW Publishing launched Angry Birds Comics in June 2014 with writer Paul Tobin; Rovio's print line also included a 2011 cookbook, Bad Piggies: Egg Recipes.

Which Finnish drinks company launched Angry Birds soft drinks in flavours like Tropic and Paradise in 2012?

Olvi, the Finnish brewer, launched the Angry Birds Tropic and Paradise soft drinks in 2012, later adding Lagoon (pear-apple) and Space Comet (orange-cola).

An Angry Birds attraction opened in 2013 at which Florida site?

Kennedy Space Center: the Angry Birds Space Encounter opened at its visitor complex in 2013 with a giant launcher and interactive exhibits; a second followed at Space Center Houston.

Rovio built its Angry Birds Playground preschool programme with which academic partner?

University of Helsinki: its education researchers helped Rovio design the Angry Birds Playground preschool programme around the Finnish curriculum; the spin-off Fun Academy followed in 2015.

'Angry Birds Yoga', a five-part essay using the game to explain Vaishnava yoga, came from which movement?

Hare Krishna: Giridhari Dasa, a Brazilian devotee of the movement, wrote the essay using the game as a metaphor for Vaishnava yoga; Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka tweeted his delight.