Angry Birds hits 140M downloads, poised for growth in China

Rovio‘s Angry Birds mobile game has been downloaded more than 140 million times since its release 16 months ago.

The game maker said it has seen a major surge from the 100 million units it reported in March, which means that the title is climbing higher in the ranks of the best-selling games of all time.

In March, Rovio released the Angry Birds Rio version of the game, with new levels and characters related to the animated film Rio.The game sells for 99 cents in Apple’s App Store, but the download number also includes free versions as well, so there isn’t a good way to tell how much the private company has generated from the title.

Peter Vesterbacka, head of Rovio, disclosed the new download number at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing. Angry Birds is now available on Android, Windows, and video game systems such as the PlayStation Network (if it actually comes back, that is). Vesterbacka said that Rovio wants to hit 100 million downloads in China this year alone. The title has competition from other popular apps such as the Talking Friends apps from Outfit7, which has also seen 100 million downloads.