Angry Birds and Legends of Learning – when games and education collide.

Learning is hard. What if we could just play games instead? This prospect has fueled educational innovation for years, and few games have bridged the gap between entertainment and education quite like Angry Birds. From demonstrating trajectories and gravitational forces in classrooms – and even aboard the International Space Station thanks to astronaut Don Petit – the physics-based puzzler has proven its educational potential. However, its impact is now expanding to an unprecedented scale through a partnership that promises to bring the avian antics to even more learners.

This exciting development involves Legends of Learning, a Washington, D.C.-based company dedicated to enhancing education through the power of game-based learning. Legends of Learning creates interactive and engaging educational games aligned with curriculum standards that help students master subjects like math and science, Their platform offers a wide range of games, making learning more enjoyable and effective. With a mission to transform the learning experience by making it more dynamic and personalized, Legends of Learning empowers educators with innovative teaching methods and fosters a love for learning. How can a flock of enraged avians do all that? To delve deeper into this partnership and explore further into game-based education, we spoke with Brian Dallesasse, Director of Content Marketplace and Director of Data Analytics at Legends of Learning.

“We all learn through experience and play,” says Dallesasse. “Games teach us how to navigate social situations, resolve conflict, strategize, and solve problems. By leveraging natural engagement, games unlock more intrinsic motivation within students and allow them to explore academic topics in a dynamic medium. Students will naturally challenge themselves to learn by solving gameplay problems integrated with educational concepts. They’ll receive immediate support and feedback, and they’ll experience more depth to the academic concepts at hand. Games instill a love of learning.”

So games have the ability to deeply engage students in educational topics, but what about the bottom line – report cards? Is this game-based learning approach working? According to Dallesasse, the data confirms that it does. “We’ve run multiple studies on this with 3rd party researchers. Most recently, in a study conducted by West Ed, a large educational non-profit, students who played Legends of Learning games increased their standardized test scores by 23 percentile points relative to non-playing students in the same school districts – that’s like jumping from the middle of the class to near the top! And what’s even more exciting, the more Legends of Learning games students played, the higher their test scores increased!”

In games like Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds Dream Blast, it is essential to provide players with new and exciting content so they are always engaged and coming back to play more. Additionally, design considerations like session length and difficulty level are essential in keeping players engaged and playing. The same is of course true for games on Legends of Learning platform as well. “Our games are built by over 500 professional game studios across more than 70 countries. All of these studios know how to create fun and immersive gameplay experiences. These games are 15-20 minutes in length, allowing students to stay focused during a single class period. While these minigames are primarily used at school, students can continue their learning experience at home with Legends through an immersive game called Awakening. This game retains curriculum-aligned academics while allowing students more creative freedom and socialization with their classmates after school.”

When it comes to keeping students interested in their studies, it takes a certain type of game to make it happen, and it doesn’t hurt to have a familiar IP in the mix as well. “Angry Birds is a PERFECT fit for the Legends of Learning platform. Angry Birds games are instantly recognizable, humorous, and motivating. Their gameplay is naturally academic with a design mechanic centered on forces and motion, so there’s already a strong foundation to integrate academic instruction and concept reinforcement. So far, the Angry Birds games have been crushing it. Over 200,000 students have played the games in the 2024-25 school year, and the games are averaging five times the playtime compared to the median game. In situations where students completed an assessment immediately before and after an Angry Birds game, students are scoring significantly higher on the post-game assessment – demonstrating that the games are helping them better understand the academic concepts.”

The partnership between Angry Birds and Legends of Learning looks to be a big win for students and game-based education – and has also secured a big win at the Kidscreen awards, where the Angry Birds Collection on Legends of Learning took home the award for Best Learning App for Kids!

By combining the fun and engaging gameplay of Angry Birds with Legends of Learning’s educational expertise, this collaboration has created an engaging and effective way for students to learn, with the data even showing improved test scores and increased engagement. Now if only the piggies had access to Legends of Learning, there are a few lessons we would like to teach them.