Finnish gaming company Rovio Entertainment cashed in on its strategy to invest in updates to the wildly popular Angry Birds game, by generating €122.1m in sales during the first half of 2018.

Angry Birds, which launched in 2009, is a game in which players throw kamikaze birds at pigs. It has proven to be a phenomenal success globally generating spin-offs including an Angry Birds film and TV series.

Founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology students, Rovio has built on its success. The latest results mark a turnaround for the company, which struggled through financial difficulties following its public listing last year.

Rovio's games generated €65.3m in sales during the second quarter of the year alone, up 6.4pc on the same period last year.

The company's overall revenue during the quarter stood at €71.8m, showing a drop of 16.8pc due to a spike in 2017 from the Angry Birds movie and a depreciation of the dollar.

Daily active users of the company's games grew by 100,000 to 8.8 million compared to the same period in 2017 - a record high. Monthly users also increased by 14.6pc to 581 thousand in the last quarter.