Harry Potter still has his magic… if by magic you mean the ability to make tons of money in a short amount of time. An augmented-reality game set in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World pulled in nearly three million new players its first weekend. And they spent a lot of real muggle money.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite hit the App Store on Thursday in a handful of countries, and players have already poured an estimated $1.1 million into it, according to market-research firm SensorTower.
And there’s plenty more where that came from. “Based on its performance over the period of June 20 through June 23, and its impending launch in Japan and South Korea, the two largest markets where it remains unavailable, we project that Harry Potter: Wizards Unite stands to gross more than $10 million in its first 30 days,” predicted these analysts.
HP:WU is free to download and play, but offers in-app purchases. These range from $0.99 for a Bag of Runestones to $99.99 for a Vault of Gold.
No Pokemon Go, though
This latest game from Niantic has been compared to its earlier smash hit Pokemon Go, as gameplay for both revolves around using a phone to find augmented-reality objects scattered around the real world. However, it seems players are more interested in pocket monsters than wizards.
As strong as the debut of HP:WU has been, it pales in comparison to the earlier offering, which took in more than $28 million in its first four days, on 24 million installs in the US, Australia and New Zealand alone.
