After its sudden and meteoric rise to success, Flappy Bird has been pulled from the App Store by developer Dong Nguyen.

Before fans panic, anyonewho already downloaded the game will still be able to play it. However, any newcomers to find out why Flappy Bird has been stuck at the top of the App Store charts for the past week will now be unable to grab the game for themselves.

Though creator Nguyen hasn't given a precise reason as to why he chose to pull the game, it seems that he was having difficulty dealing with the unexpected shift from quiet indie dev to internet celebrity.

On Saturday, he posted the following statement on his Twitter feed:

"I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore."

During its reign at the top of the App Store, many had commented unfavourably on Flappy Bird's Mario-esque art design and elementary gameplay.

It seems that, though the game was generating upwards of $5,000 per day in ad revenue, the negative reaction it garnered from some journalists and players could have played a role in its removal.

Before the app was pulled, Nguyen explained that the game's success had ruined his simple life. "So now I hate it," he concluded in a tweet.

He maintains that that the removal of Flappy Bird "is not anything to do with legal issues."