Joining the ranks of Angry Birds, Temple Run, Candy Crush, and Clash of the Clans, Flappy Bird is the latest smartphone game to sweep the nation. Many students at Freedom High are taking part in this trend, constantly devoting their time to the frustrating task of beating their high score. The objective of Flappy Bird is getting a tiny pixelated bird to maneuver through a series of tunnels in order to stay elevated.  By using only one finger, players tap to keep their flappy bird mid-air as they navigate through the pipes on a moving platform. As soon as the bird comes into contact with any of its surroundings, the game is over. Although seemingly easy, Flappy Bird has been called the “Drug of the App Store” as it is the most addictive game available at the moment.

With over 500 million downloads and 100,000 iTunes reviews, Flappy Bird was labeled as the hottest free app on the market. The simplistic tapping game has quickly climbed to the top of the list, becoming more popular than any other game.

“[It was very] challenging. It’s difficult enough for you to hate it, but easy enough for it to be addicting. You always have to go back to try to beat your high score,” said Senior Kathleen Miller.

All the hype that the game has created, has spawned dozens of spinoffs such as the game Squishy Bird and merchandise such as Flappy Bird t-shirts, mugs, and magnets. People all over the world have tried sleeplessly to beat records, create cheats, and even develop the website flappybird.com. It is estimated that the creator of the free game, earns around $50,000 per day, due to the app’s ads alone.

“It became so popular because it looks easy but it’s hard; you always want to try to beat your friend’s high score,” said Junior, Michael Osei-Owuso.

As of February 9, 2014, Flappy Bird is no longer available for download in any platform. Creator Dong Ngyuen, announced on Twitter Saturday that the app would be taken down because he “could not take it anymore”.  After the game had started to receive too much popularity, the hype that it had created had to be put to an end.

Although the game is no longer on the app stores, people can play Flappy Bird if it was previously installed on their phone.