Rovio Entertainment launched Angry Birds 2, as it looked to capitalise on the popularity of what was described as “the most downloaded mobile game series of all time”.

While the company described the app as the “first sequel” to the original app, it has offered a number of variants in the meantime – such as Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio.

While the success of the original Angry Birds is impossible to doubt (more than 2.5 billion downloads), Rovio’s growth hasn’t always been smooth. Last year it cut 110 employees (with some reassigned internally) after having built its team on “assumptions of faster growth than have materialised”.

And the company reported solid growth in its games business for 2014, with sales increasing to €110.7 million from €95.2 million.

Indeed, Angry Birds has served the company well. Fabien Nicholas, VP of marketing communications and community for analytics firm App Annie, said: “Even six years after the launch of its marquee title, we are still seeing Rovio take a significant share of downloads, with a number 8 rank worldwide in June”.

Rovio is positioning itself as “the first [company] to build an entertainment brand from a mobile gaming app”, which has taken it into a number of new areas, including a “high-budget Angry Birds feature film”.

Angry Birds 2 is said to have been “overhauled from the ground up”, while maintaining the “much-loved slingshot format”.

“Design technology has evolved dramatically since the original game launched in 2009. With Angry Birds 2 we wanted to bring a level of expressive depth and detail seen previously only in a console game or animated series – and create a new game that kids and adults alike won’t be able to put down,” said Niklas Hed, co-founder of Rovio.

Angry Birds 2 is available for Android and iOS.