A brief history of Angry Birds to celebrate 10 years of the acclaimed mobile mascot

The original Angry Birds hit in December 2009, just a year on from the rollout of the App Store. We won't claim to have called its immense success at the time, but what was instantly apparent was how darned slick and intuitive its bird-pinging action was.

We're well used to the 'game as service' these days, but Angry Birds Seasons was an early mobile example of this. It initially launched in October 2010 as Angry Birds Halloween, then grew from there with successive level drops themed around seasonal holidays.

Launched in March 2011, Angry Birds Rio was a direct tie-in with the Fox animated film Rio. There was nothing especially fresh about the execution here, although omission of the green pig antagonists of the main games was notable.

A tie-in with the popular '90s sitcom in which you must ping the birds into a gang of smug 20-something New Yorkers. Alternatively (and factually) a Facebook-focused take on the original game with a competitive high-score-chasing angle.

It might not have been called Angry Birds 2 (which was still several years off), but 2012's Angry Birds Space was the follow-up that really felt like an advancement from the original. Its gravity-warping physics would pave the way for a major tie-in.

The first proper Angry Birds spinoff did some genuinely interesting stuff when it launched in early 2012. Focusing on the oinking baddies of the series, it had you constructing (and commanding) makeshift vehicles from a toolbox of crates, wheels, desk fans, helium-filled balloons, and motors.

Combining the brilliant spacey mechanics introduced in Angry Birds Space with the Star Wars license proved to be an early master stroke for Rovio. The result was late 2012's Angry Birds Star Wars - arguably the best Angry Birds game ever made.

Less than a year passed to this Star Wars-themed follow-up, which was set during the prequel era. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it simply wasn't as fun or inventive as its immediate predecessor, though it was still plenty enjoyable.

It was bound to happen. Launched right at the end of 2013, Angry Birds Go is essentially Angry Birds does Mario Kart, but with a more casual freemium bent. Who knew that six years later things would come full circle with Mario Kart Tour?

As the name suggests, Angry Birds Epic saw the franchise entering casual RPG territory. It's a constant series of bright and breezy turn-based battles, with a little crafting for good measure.

In which the birds discover the joys of mass-produced fizzy lager. No, silly. 2014's Angry Birds Stella was yet more classic Angry Birds, but with a predominantly female cast of characters that were spun off into their own animated series.

The only thing more surprising than the concept of an Angry Birds-Transformers crossover is the way this late 2014 game plays. It ditches the considered pace of classic AB in favour of a fast-paced on-rails shooter vibe.

March 2015's Angry Birds POP! (Which was initially branded as the second Stella game) saw Rovio branching out into classic tile-matching. The particular brand of tactile bubble popping was pure Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move, but that made a certain kind of sense given the flicky physics Angry Birds is known for.

More match-three antics from the Angry Birds stable. However, the influence for June 2015's Angry Birds Fight! was more Puzzle Quest than Puzzle Bobble. We're talking competitive puzzle-RPG action where forming matches lands attacks on your opponent.

It took 11 entries and almost six years for Rovio to finally issue a direct sequel to the original Angry Birds. Launched in mid-2015, Angry Birds 2 is a pretty faithful refinement and expansion of the original bird-pinger - and boy is it slick.

Angry Birds Action! landed the same year as The Angry Birds Movie (2016), which is reflected in the character design. What's more interesting is Action's switch to a top-down view, which gives the core bird-pinging gameplay a fun pinball feel.

Rovio explored a third strand of match-three puzzling in 2016's Angry Birds Blast! This time around it's a fairly straight-up take on Candy Crush Saga's tile swapping, with specific goals to reach within a limited number of moves.

Mid-2017's Angry Birds Evolution wasn't so much an evolution of the series as a genetic splicing of Angry Birds Epic and the previous year's Angry Birds Action. It's a turn-based RPG, but with top-down bird-pinging mechanics for the combat.

Just a couple of months on from Evolution we got perhaps Rovio's most traditional take on match-three yet. Angry Birds Match does its familiar Bejeweled/Candy Crush Saga thing, but with the cute Hatchlings taken from The Angry Birds Movie.

Arriving in 2018, Angry Birds Champions is basically the original Angry Birds with an online gambling element. All those who secretly wished they could monetise the countless hours lost to Rovio's game finally got their wish. Kind of.

In February 2018, Rovio made Angry Birds playable on Facebook's Instant Games platform. This meant you could play the game natively in Messenger, seamlessly pinging your scores to your friends like an irate squawker.

Earlier this year we received Angry Birds Dream Blast, a follow-up of sorts to 2016's Angry Birds Blast. You're still popping combinations of coloured balloons, but this time the physics are much less rigid.

Rovio joined the AR/VR revolution this year in Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs. Think of it as a first person take on Angry Birds, but where the pig-filled constructs are anchored in the real world, on your kitchen table or living room floor.

This follow-up to 2015's Angry Birds POP is now in soft-launch. It's most notable for being set after the events of The Angry Birds Movie 2, but otherwise boasts similar Puzzle Bobble-esque bubble popping action to the original.

2019 is clearly the year in which Angry Birds invaded AR. Angry Birds Explore takes an even more casual, app-like approach, with a variety of mini-games and AR-powered light diversions.