Top 5: Smartphone Games That Became a Rage

Smartphone games known to stimulate the brain are also infamous for leading players into the wilderness to the extent of injuring themselves. Time and again there have been certain apps which instantly became a global phenomenon and got the world hooked onto their devices for hours and days at end. The newest game bucking the trend is Niantic Labs’ Pokemon Go – a smartphone game that brings together the popular Nintendo series from the 90s to the world of augmented reality.

While some smartphone games continue to enjoy popularity among masses years after being launched, there are also some which become a passing fad.

Here are some of the gaming apps which took the world by storm for their contagiously addictive nature.

1. Candy Crush Saga

This free smartphone app is in its seventh year since its release way back in 2012 and continues to enjoy massive popularity among smartphone game lovers. The three-match puzzle by game maker King started off as a browser game for Facebook before being rolled out onto mobile platforms and further expanding into other versions.

Another game to cross the billion download mark, Rovio’s Angry Birds became a rage across age groups thanks to the blend of cute characters and physics. Shooting birds in the air not only made Rovio rich but a recently released movie based on the angry characters also made over $150 million worldwide.

People can never get tired of running in this motion-based 3D game for smartphones. The endless running game is developed by Raleigh-based Imangi Studios and first released in 2011 for iOS. Over the years, it has moved onto other platforms and also come up with a sequel. As per a 2014 report by the developer, the game had been downloaded over a billion times and most of the players were women.

Perhaps one of the only games which awarded its developer death threats by a frustrated player, Flappy Bird can be safely labeled the most annoying smartphone game ever. Developed by Vietnam-based Dong Nyugen, the game was first released in May 2013. But the developer pulled down the game from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store because the guilt of having built such an addictive game took over Nyugen. In 2014, Nyugen released a revised version of Flappy Bird, called Flappy Birds Family, which was exclusive to the Amazon Appstore for the Amazon Fire TV platform.