Angry Birds reaches half a billion downloads

Those who have never downloaded or played Angry Birds are quickly becoming a minority class, as Rovio has now announced new milestone. The game has now been downloaded 500 million times. That's a big number, proving that people just can't get enough of slinging feathered kamikaze birds at greedy green pigs.

The noteworthy achievement here is how the game seems to be bucking the trend of progressively slower success and instead picking up speed. In early September, it had achieved 350 million downloads. It launched in late 2009, meaning that it took almost two years to reach 350 million, but only two months to stack on another 150 million. Of course, it can't hurt that it comes in multiple flavors, and is available on just about every platform.

Still, Rovio took the opportunity to give their wunderkind a hearty pat on the back. "This is a fantastic landmark achievement for us, and we're extremely delighted to see such an incredible amount of people enjoying our games," said CEO Mikael Hed in the announcement. "We remain committed to creating more fun experiences and bringing exceptional quality to Angry Birds Fans everywhere."

Currently Rovio is planning the grand opening of an Angry Birds retail shop in Helsinki, Finland, which will specialize in Angry Birds merchandise. Meanwhile, the company has acquired an animation studio to produce cartoons. This is happening, people. This is happening.