According to a recent games industry article, the toy manufacturer for Rovio's line of Angry Birds toys, Commonwealth Toy & Novelty Co., expects to sell a whopping $400 million worth of Angry Birds merchandise this year. To put it in perspective, that's about 4 times the amount that Tiger Woods and LeBron James's annual salary COMBINED.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Lisa Shamus, Commonwealth's executive vice president, said "It is the most spectacular thing I've ever seen in licensing and I've been doing this for 20 years." When Rovio set up its online store to start selling Commonwealth's merchandise, everything sold out in two hours, proving the worldwide craze that is Angry Birds.
Since it's release by RovioMobile in 2009, the original Angry Birds and all its additions have reached (cumulatively) over one billion downloads. It's now available on everything from Facebook, to mobile phones, nooks, and iPads, and will eventually make a nest on home consoles as well.
Last year, Rovio said it generated $106 million in revenue. About 30% of that came from licensing agreements and sales of merchandise like Commonwealth's plush toy line, as well as red-bird squeeze pillows, board games, and Halloween costumes. A true success story, Commonwealth now receives dozens of licensing offers from app developers each month.