Flappy Bird was a mobile game developed in Hanoi by Vietnamese developer Nguyen Hà Đông (Dong Nguyen) and published by .GEARS Studios, a small independent game developer, also based in Vietnam. The game, released on May 24, 2013, was removed from the App Store and Google Play by its creator on February 9, 2014.
This game quickly began to accumulate downloads until it became the most downloaded in all app stores to the surprise even of its creator.

Dong later claimed in an interview on the Rolling Stone magazine website that the main reason he removed the game: "I had received emails from fans of Flappy Bird claiming that it was as addictive as crack and this frustrated people"
He also added that, quite to the contrary, his initial intention was
"Create a game that people could enjoy for ten minutes, in a relaxing context, not spend hours trying to achieve a higher score."