Classic Flappy Bird: the original rules
This page plays Flappy Bird the way it worked when Dong Nguyen released it in 2013: a small bird, endless green pipes and a single input. There are no power-ups, no lives and no levels — every run starts from zero and lasts until the first collision.
The rules in one minute
- Press Space, click or tap to flap. Nothing else is used.
- Fly through the gap between each pair of pipes. Clearing a pair scores 1 point.
- Touching a pipe or the ground ends the run.
- On the score screen, Space or the replay button starts a new run straight away.
Medal table
| Score in one run | Medal |
|---|
| 0–9 | No medal |
| 10–19 | Bronze |
| 20–29 | Silver |
| 30–39 | Gold |
| 40 or more | Platinum |
The medal is decided by the score of that single run; your best score is shown next to it and saved in your browser.
Why it feels so hard
The bird is always falling and each flap is a fixed jump, so you cannot make small corrections — you can only choose when to flap. The gaps keep the same size but move up and down at random, which means every pipe asks for a slightly different rhythm. Most runs end on a sudden change from a low gap to a high one: start flapping a little earlier than feels natural when you see the next opening is higher.
A short history
Flappy Bird was made by Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen and published for phones in 2013. It became one of the most downloaded mobile games in early 2014, and its creator then removed it from the app stores. Browser versions like this one keep the original one-button idea playable on any computer or phone. For a quick start guide, go back to the home page; to compare your run with other players, open the leaderboard.