Flappy Bird News: Phones With Deleted Game Selling for Thousands on eBay

Smartphones that have the recently cancelled Flappy Bird game downloaded are selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on eBay and similar websites.

The popular, notoriously difficult game has been removed from the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play Store, but anyone desperate to try the game can still purchase a phone with the game installed on it. Prices for phones including Flappy Bird vary by model and hardware, with some phones priced at nearly $100,000.

This iPhone 5 on eBay has a current bidding price of $310; one eBay vendor is offering a 64GB iPhone 5 with the game installed for $750; another listing prices a 16GB iPhone 5 that includes the game for $2,100; an iPhone 5s available through eBay with Flappy Bird has reached a bidding price of $5,100; and one auction for an iPhone with the game has skyrocketed to $90,955, all for the privilege of playing the game that is now no longer available to download.

It should be noted that all these smartphones are used smartphones and that a new unlocked iPhone 5s costs $750. 

Flappy Bird first came into prominence when mobile gamers began discovering the game and quickly took it to the top of the Apple App download chart. The game allowed users to tap on the screen to cause a bird to fly and avoid obstacles. The bare bones style of the game caused some controversy, as some hardcore gamers claimed that the game was not an actual video game and debated whether mobile games could be considered in the same regard as console games. The game also faced criticism for its difficulty level and for the similar art style the game had with the Mario franchise created by Nintendo.

The level of unprecedented popularity combined with the criticism caused Dong Nguyen, the creator of the game, to pull it from App Stores.