MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Niantic’s hugely-successful augmented reality mobile game, Pokémon Go, has surpassed $3 billion in lifetime gross revenue.
As reported by Sensor Tower Store Intelligence, the mobile game has been downloaded approximately 541 million times to date worldwide. In 2016 alone the game generated $842.4 million in gross revenue but 2019 may still eclipse its record year as revenue this year currently stands at $774.3 million with two months still to go.
“This year’s sales have been spurred on by updates such as Pokémon Go’s introduction of Team Rocket,” Sensor Tower said. “We previously estimated that the update had helped drive approximately $110 million in player spend in August 2019, while in September Pokémon GO generated $126 million in gross revenue. So far in October, user spending has hit an estimated $67.8 million.”
Players in the US have generated the most money at around $1.1 billion – 36.2 per cent of total lifetime spend – while Japanese players generated an estimated $884.5 million and 29.4 per cent. The lion share’s of spending – $1.6bn or 54 per cent – was made via Google Play accounts. Germany accounts for $181.6 million, or 6 per cent.
The U.S. also accounted for the majority of downloads, too, clocking up 99.3 million unique installs – 18.4 per cent of all downloads. Brazil came runner-up with 58.4 million (10.8 per cent).
In other Niantic news, the company recently launched a new gameplay system, Adventure Sync, that enables players to count their steps in-game without needing to keep the app open. Unsurprisingly, Niantic’s first implementation of the system was for Pokémon Go, helping players hatch eggs and earn candy without draining their phone batteries.
“This key feature unlocks a wide variety of gameplay opportunities on the Niantic Real World Platform, serving as an efficient and phone-friendly high-engagement tool that inspires players to head out into their local communities,” said Niantic CEO John Hanke at the time. “We’re looking forward to finding new and exciting ways to implement it in our other games in the future.”
