Video game creator Imangi Studios announced Wednesday that its Temple Run game has reached 1 billion app downloads.
The Temple Run series, which started in 2011, has joined the popularity ranks of Rovio's Angry Birds franchise, which gained over a billion downloads over two years ago, according to PC Magazine.
"It's honestly kind of crazy," said Keith Shepherd, co-founder of Imangi Studios. "When we started out, we couldn't have dreamed of hitting a billion downloads. Now, it's being played around the world, and it's amazing to see how much players love the game and want to keep playing. We're proud to be standing next to Angry Birds."
Temple Run has been credited for making the endless runner genre of video games popular. In these kinds of games, players must run through environments that become more challenging as the user moves through levels, Gamespot reported.
"If you can bring something novel and new to the table, it adds that extra excitement level and that extra component to the virality of it," Shepherd said.
The company currently has a team of 11 employees at its office in Raleigh, California.
Players of the game have collectively spent 216,018 house playing over 32 billion games in three years, PC Magazine reported.
Imangi Studios is run by Shepherd and his wife Natalia Luckyanova. The company also created Temple Run: Brave, Temple Run: Oz, and Harbor Master.
"We're incredibly grateful to all the Temple Run players and our wonderful team," Shepherd said. "We look forward to continuing to grow the Temple Run franchise, as well as creating additional innovative games."
According to Gamespot, Warner Bros. is also working on a Temple Run movie with Harry Potter producer David Heyman.
Shepherd also hinted at the possibility of a Temple Run 3 being in the works.
"A lot of people ask if there will be a Temple Run 3, and that's something we consider and think could happen, but we don't have any announcements for it at this time," he said.
Shepherd added that the company is currently focusing mainly on updating Temple 2 and growing licensing partnerships.
