It might not be dominating the headlines as much as it perhaps used to, but a fall off in coverage is by no means indicative of Pokémon Go‘s continued success. According to figures shared by analysts, in fact, the mobile title is even more popular – or financially successful, at the very least – than it ever has been. As revealed by Sensor Tower, developer Niantic has so far (there are still two months of the year left to go, after all) managed to rake in total revenue of over $1 billion in 2020 alone, making it the most lucrative 10-month period since launch back in 2016.
As for the cause of this uptick, there’s no way to know for sure, though a certain global pandemic has certainly made a lasting impact. COVID-19, says Sensor Tower, has caused downloads and overall revenue in the mobile space to soar under various lockdown measures taken to curb the virus’ spread, something Niantic swiftly capitalized on by introducing various gameplay features and changes to accommodate social distancing guidelines in-game.
An impressive year all told, then, and one that has boosted Pokémon Go‘s lifetime revenue to approximately $4.2 billion globally. Unsurprisingly, the US and Japan placed first and second as the most lucrative markets, accounting for 36.3% and 31.3% of total spending respectively, with Germany coming in a distant third with 5.7%. Platform usage, on the other hand, saw an almost even split between Android and iOS, with 600 million unique downloads shared between them.
As of writing, Pokémon Go sits in a comfortable third place in terms of player spending, and it’ll be interesting to see if it can clinch the top spot before 2020 comes to an end. Should Niantic continue to roll out consistent updates and new content on a regular basis, there’s no reason why it can’t finish the year with a bang.
Published: Nov 5, 2020 10:20 am