Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen deletes popular game

The developer of Flappy Bird, which was the most popular free mobile game on Apple App Store and Google's Android Play store, has removed the game from the online stores.

Nguyen Ha Dong, a Vietnamese, Hanoi-based game developer, announced the grounding of the addictive game in a Tweet at 1900 GMT on Saturday in which he also apologized to Flappy Bird players.

'22 hours from now, I will take "Flappy Bird" down,' Dong said adding: 'It is not anything related to legal issues.'

'I cannot take this anymore,' he wrote.

Flappy Bird caused a sensation after rising out of obscurity to become one of the most downloaded mobile games on both Apple and Google's online stores.

Users have to steer a bird between green pipes. The Android version has been downloaded up to 50 million times, and attracted more than half a million reviews.

Nguyen had previously suggested that his life had become overrun by the success of the game, which has achieved a global following despite its basic graphics – often likened to the old Mario Nintendo games – and simple premise of flying a bird past a sequence of pipe obstacles. The revenue from advertising in the game, which is free to download for iOS and Android users, has been estimated at close to £30,000 a day.

Dong Nguyen