Since its’ development 25 years ago by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov, who coincidentally did not receive royalties for the game due to the nature of communist Russia, Tertris has been confirmed as the best selling mobile game of all time having surpassed 100 million downloads on mobile phones around the world.

Created in Moscow the name Tertis was derived from the Greek numeral prefix Tetra and Tennis, Pajitnov’s favourite sport. It initially found worldwide success when it was released for Nintendo’s handheld GameBoy console in 1989.
According to Yahoo! Adam Sussman, vice president of worldwide publishing at Electronic Arts Inc.’s mobile unit, said the this marked “a huge moment not just for EA but for mobile gaming in general. It speaks to the evergreen appeal of Tetris.”

Pajitnov believes the success of Tertris can be attributed to the fact that it is easy to understand and play and has an addictive quality to it.

“It is appealing to all demographics, all cultures,” he said.

Sussman revealed that Tetris is available in over 60 countries on roughly 64,000 different handsets.