<i>sigh</i> Correlation does not imply causation. More than likely, the spike in downloads was because it was linked to large parts of the internet via Facebook, Youtube and news sites. This drove most of the reviews. Sure, the 5 star rating helped, but plenty of other apps with low downloads also have 5 stars.<p>5 star ratings and 1000 or so downloads are the barrier an app needs to cross before people even look at it, sure, but it's what half the free apps on the app stores have anyway. It's certainly not some criteria for success, only a criteria to get noticed at all to begin with.<p>So the paid reviews would have pushed Flappy Bird to appear near the top of searching for 'Flappy Bird' or 'Flappy' (as most apps ends up after a few months if they don't just crash), but the actual game itself and what it inspired in social and traditional media is what pushed it to the top of the charts.