A couple of weeks ago, Rovio left gamers scratching their heads when they began teasing Angry Birds 2. The company revealed a logo for the first true sequel in the series (which also has countless spinoffs to its name), and promised more information to come on July 28th. Well, when July 28th came, by "more information", we learned that Rovio outright decided to launch the game that very same day across Android and iOS devices.

Just three short days since the game's launch, Rovio has announced a couple of stunning statistics, showing that while Angry Birds may not be quite as popular as it once was, the franchise still has quite the following.

Within 12 hours, Angry Birds 2 was downloaded over 1 million times. Three days later, that number jumped to 10 million downloads. This is quite the accomplishment indeed, and thanks to the game's heavy use of microtransactions, which has been a main source of criticism for it since launch, it's likely that Rovio is enjoying quite the pay day thanks to the success of Angry Birds 2.

This initial success could taper off once word of mouth spreads that the general consensus seems to be that Angry Birds 2 simply does not live up to the quality of the original game or even many of the spinoffs. While praise has been levied at the game's art style, many of the gameplay changes Rovio has implemented have been heavily criticized by the public. This negative press versus the adoration of the original may keep Angry Birds 2 from reaching the same heights. That being said, the bar is set pretty high, as the original Angry Birds has been downloaded over 1 billion times at last count.

Despite the past success of the franchise, Rovio has definitely been in better shape. Due to sinking profits, the CEO of Rovio stepped down from his position last year, and this is despite continued releases of Angry Birds titles through various spinoffs and licensing deals with popular franchises, including Transformers and Star Wars.

While this initial success is impressive, it still is unclear whether or not Angry Birds 2 stands a chance of reaching the same heights as the original game. The first Angry Birds, while not the most original game, was able to stand out thanks to its art style, charm, and addicting gameplay, quickly becoming one of the most popular games on mobile devices, in turn allowing it to evolve into a substantial multimedia franchise. Angry Birds 2 has a lot to live up to, and while early reviews for the game are mostly negative, it's up to Rovio to make sure that the people that downloaded the game decide to keep the game installed.

Angry Birds 2 is currently available as a free download for various iOS and Android devices, including phones and tablets.

Source: GameSpot