But the game is also highly difficult, which may explain its appeal. Managing to fly the bird past the first few pipes requires a certain rhythm, and obtaining a high score requires players to maintain that rhythm as the pipes become increasingly trickier to avoid.

The desire to surmount Flappy Bird’s difficulty and acquire high scores has seemingly led to many players sticking with the game. Twitter abounds with Flappy Bird fanatics, and multiple accounts – each with over 400 thousand followers - have been set up for players to share their highest scores.

News of Flappy Bird has also spread worldwide. The game made headlines in China on February 3, and Chinese netizens on video game forums and social networks like Sina Weibo have called the game everything from “terrible” to “terribly addictive.”

“A pure waste of time,” another wrote. “Nevertheless, my high score’s 30 pipes.”

Despite blasting the game for its unrelenting difficulty, many Chinese netizens couldn’t help but begrudgingly acknowledge that its addictiveness had kept them playing for far too long. Several were also impressed that Flappy Bird had been programmed by a single person.

“This game shows that the mobile app creators in Vietnam are tons more innovative than those in China,” one Sina Weibo poster wrote. “Vietnam is definitely not the weak country that Chinese media always paints it as.”

Flappy Bird’s fame – as well as the attention focused on its country of origin – comes as a surprise for 29-year-old Dong Nguyen, who told TechCrunch in an interview that he had been making games for four years and preferred to maintain a low profile.

“I didn’t use any promotion methods,” Nguyen said. “All accounts on [social media] about Flappy Bird are not mine… I have no resources to do anything else besides uploading the game. The popularity could [just] be…luck.”

Nguyen originally uploaded Flappy Bird to the iOS and Google Play stores in May, but the game did not receive its sudden surge of attention until the beginning of 2014. Following Flappy Bird’s success, other mobile games that Nguyen created in the past have been downloaded by interested players, and the developer currently has an unprecedented three titles listed on the “Top Free Downloads” chart of the iOS store.

“I don’t know how my games can be so popular,” Nguyen said. “Most of my players are kids in schools. I would like to thank them for playing my game and sharing it [with] other people.”

Some have speculated that despite his denials, Nguyen may have promoted Flappy Bird by using “bots,” or automated programs that can generate positive reviews.

Others, including members of popular internet message board Reddit, have said that a combination of maddeningly difficult yet addictive mechanics likely helped the game spread via word-of-mouth.

“[It’s] far from the only game which uses simple but challenging gameplay to become popular,” said a Reddit user named “idemockle” who likened Flappy Bird to similar titles like Minesweeper, Tetris and Temple Run. “The controls are extremely consistent and easy enough to learn that the player sees immediate improvement in their skill and is motivated to continue to try for a higher score.”

“Basically, the game passed the bar of being decently made, replayable and easily approachable, which are the minimum set of qualifications for a successful mobile game,” another Reddit user named “HPLoveshack” added.

And then there's the name.

“I suspect that the fact that it’s called Flappy Bird probably brought it some early credibility just through word association with Angry Birds.”

To play a computer version of Flappy Bird, click here.