If mario games were free on the app store, people would buy billions and billions of iphones and ipads tp play mario games, and mario games would be huuuuuuge! I understand angry birds has been downloaded more than 1 billion times, but im really sure that if super mario bros 3 was released as a free download it would have a least 10 billion downloads in less than a year

See, exactly what I was saying!

I don't really think so

at this point, i think super mario bros has still made more money since it's fruition than angry birds has in the past couple years. i mean, nintendo pretty much saved the gaming industry AND created their empire based on this one series.

Rovio is now downsizing after years of growth, and are now making new non-Angry birds games.

Perhaps Angry Birds isn't big after all.

Nope, there are individual Super Mario games that have generated more revenue than the entire Angry Birds franchise.

No. Simply put.

There's no measure of success established here.

More people may have played Angry Birds, but for how long long did they play it, and how well did they like it?

In terms of profits for an entire franchise, Angry Birds won't be touching Mario any time soon.

While I believe that Angry Birds hasn't topped Super Mario Bros. as a franchise, at the very least it has reached the same level as SMB relative to its age. Just like SMB, Angry Birds has a TV show, an upcoming film, toys, merch, etc. It's everything SMB had back in the day.

Now, the question on whether AB will be around for long (30+ years), it's anybody's call. Rovio can elect to change AB's gameplay (Super Angry Birds) to ensure its relevance. Remember Mario Bros started with a different gameplay.