Reason behind Angry Birds success

What addiction claims more young lives than any other, and may soon outnumber smokers and drug addicts?
Its the addiction with Angry Birds.
According to Rovio a simple game with a unique concept of birds fighting pigs with a catapult has been downloaded more than 500 Million times and has made Rovio a 1 Billion Dollar company.

I want to talk about what made this game so successful, i know that the market is unpredictable and people yearn for something new but how can an idea as simple as that can create such a chaos in the gaming industry and let alone completely redefine the mobile gaming industry? So after reading countless blogs on this subject and reading a complete case study (ah yes! there is a complete case study done by league of gamers and Psychologists) I found the results to be quite shocking just like the researchers.

Lets focus on the game for a second, This game involves employing a sling shot to catapult mean looking birds with bad attitude onto a house like structure made my glass woods and bricks sheltering the antagonist pigs who stole angry birds eggs.
I'd say creative but not enough to make a company built from scraps into a billion dollar company.
Maybe the reason for its success is that angry birds is portable, what i mean to say is a user can play whenever he wants, wherever he wants and even how long he wants to play it. The sole decision completely depends on the user but it should be applicable to each and every mobile game and trust me there are thousands out there, so why just a few of these games are so popular including angry birds?
Lets look into it from an average user's perspective and hope to find the result.

First of all, Angry Birds is as simple as it gets with a game. The basic concept behind the game is so easy to grasp that anyone and everyone no matter what their age or mental faculty can understand it within seconds. There is no need for words to explain, all you need is a couple of frames and you are all set. This takes minutes spent reading the how to play out of the equation.
Another thing I felt was the difficulty level in this game. The game is too easy, even chimps can play this game if they wanted to. So why make a game so easy? and more importantly why play a game so easy? There is no real skill involved just using angles for the attack and exploiting the ability of each bird. It is because of our brain and I quote "brain equates simplicity with ease". Big words but what they really mean is that you know that you should be able to beat the game.

There is a fine line between success and failure in Angry Birds. The difference between destroying all the pigs and scenery with the first bird, and leaving everything intact after three birds is a matter of adjusting the angles ever so slightly. Or even using the same angles but deploying a bird’s special ability at precisely the right moment.

Why is success/failure addictive? Because it keeps you playing, quite simply. Get it wrong once and you immediately want to try again, just tweaking the angle or point of delivery by a tiny increment in order to affect the outcome. And you’ll keep trying until you succeed, and move on to the next level.
I'll share my own thought process while playing the game "it looks easy and sounds easy why can't I beat the game? I should give it a try! (after playing once) oh I got two stars, maybe I should try doing something different in the next level. hah! I got 3 stars, maybe I should go back and try the same thing in the previous level. (After some time) Finally got 3 stars in the first two levels, I wonder if it gets any difficult in later levels, I think i should try the next levels too.....and there you go" Hopefully I proved my point right here.

Secondly, I found that 65% of the people who play angry birds are between 16-25 years of age, and they are the ones who create most impact on the success and failure of any game in the market so they are our target audience.
If we go into their psychology and yes it plays a very important role here,  almost 90% of males and 80% of females in our target audience feel sad or depressed or stressed at least once in a day. Something as easy going as Angry birds can well brighten the mood or simply distract the player. We all have our issues, goals, dreams and equal share of distress in our life.

Angry birds connect with every person in its own way but it does connect. It may be the ambition of winning at all costs, destroying evil, rescuing something they care for(in birds case, eggs). In any case for most individuals it is usually satisfaction. I hate to admit it but there is a certain level of satisfaction felt in playing Angry Birds. Launching a bird into a wall and seeing the death and destruction rain down as a result is compelling. Getting it just right and seeing the whole level implode in one hit often elicits a smile or even a laugh along with a devilish grin.
Why is satisfaction addictive? Because it makes you happy and when you are happy you release endorphin's into the system. It’s really no wonder you want, or even need to keep on playing to keep those feelings to keep rolling in. The more you play the more you laugh, the more you laugh, the more you feel a rush, the more of a rush you feel, the more you want to keep on playing!

Another thing building its success is the progression and gameplay. The levels are small, and player always feels that he's making progress. After each level he's immediately taken to the next, and after a while he's hooked and wont stop playing. At least not until you get well and truly stuck but even after you stop playing your mind will keep pondering how you were going so good and just one level got in your way and your thought process will be focused on that stage and how to beat it.
Why is progress addictive? Because you’re always working your way towards a conclusion. With modern video games it’s often hard to see any progress being made; the levels are long, and the markers are few and far between. Angry Birds rejects that concept completely and returns us to a time when games comprised of dozens of separate levels.

One last thing that I found was competition. I played angry birds first time and I stopped after a few levels. Next day I saw my friend playing the same game and he already beat the whole game like a pro. Now if he can do that why can't I? and now I'll keep playing it till i get it right so I can show off with my friend next day. And if during that process another friend unaware of such devilish vices saw me playing it...well there it goes again. That brings us to a question Why is competition addictive? Simple answer is because no one wants to be beaten, no matter how noncompetitive and non-combative they may be. You play a level and finish it fine, but you’re still only number two or number three in the pecking order. You need to play again, to up your score, to overtake whichever friends are beating you on Angry Birds.

So that was my complete case study on Angry Birds, yes I did spend a few hours studying the concepts of this game but I found them to be time well spent because now I know a little more about the psychology of the people
and what they expect from a game which can never be useless not if you want to make money off people's vices. :D