Two years after launching on Apple's iOS platform, Rovio Mobile's blockbuster Angry Birds continues to captivate consumers, crossing the 500 million download threshold. Rovio chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka announced the milestone at the Slush 2011 in Finland, stating that Angry Birds is now the fastest growing and most downloaded game ever.

Rovio landed $42 million in a Series A venture financing round completed in March. In addition to 500 million Angry Birds downloads, Rovio has sold millions of plush toys and a million t-shirts. The firm is also planning animated efforts and will expand into print publishing, with a cookbook already in the works. Rovio is now valued at more than $1 billion--last month, Vesterbacka told Bloomberg that Rovio is mulling an IPO as soon as 2012.Just two weeks ago, Rovio Mobile's North American general manager Andrew Stalbow announced Angry Birds downloads totaled 400 million across all platforms, indicating the title generates 50 million new installs every seven days. At that time, Stalbow added that more than 130 million consumers play Angry Birds each month--30 million access the app each day, translating to 300 million minutes of daily game play.