Pokémon Go turns 5, rakes in $5 billion in player spending

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The world's most popular AR geolocation game turns five!
Photo: Niantic

Augmented-reality game Pokémon Go earned more than $5 billion from player spending in the five years it’s been around, says a new report from app analytics platform Sensor Tower Store Intelligence. Of this, App Store revenue from iOS users accounts for $2.4 billion — or approximately 47%.

Niantic launched Pokémon Go in July 2016. That means the game generated an average of $1 billion per year, making it by far the highest-earning geolocation AR app in the world. In the first half of 2021 alone, Pokémon Go raked in a massive $641.6 million across both Android and iOS.

In fact, the $1 billion-per-year stat is somewhat misleading. If anything, Pokémon Go is gaining momentum as time goes by. This time last year, when the game turned four, it had just passed $3.6 billion in player spending. The money it has made since then makes 2020 the game’s best-ever year in terms of earnings. That’s pretty darn impressive for a title that’s half a decade old.

iOS gamers spend more on Pokémon Go

In total, Pokémon Go has been downloaded 632 million times. Of these downloads, 144.8 million have been on iOS, while the remaining 487 million were on Android. That means iOS users spend, on average, significantly more money than Android users, since they account for just 23% of downloads but almost half of earnings. The United States is the top market for generating revenue.

Pokémon Go continues to be a powerhouse in the global mobile games market, kept relevant by a string of key updates and the consistent addition of new Pokémon to collect,” Sensor Tower says. “The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns could have represented a huge challenge for a title focused on players being outside, but the addition of more stay-at-home functionality to keep users playing has paid off, with 2020 revenue hitting record highs. That impressive performance has continued, with 2021 already representing a stellar year for the hit title.”

If you’re one of the few folks not to have tried this AR phenomenon, you can download Pokémon Go for free via the App Store.

Source: Sensor Tower

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