‘Pokémon Go’ Surpasses One Billion Downloads

Pokémon Go isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

According to Pokémon Go‘s Japanese YouTube channel, the popular mobile game has reached the impressive milestone of one billion downloads just over three years after it was first released.

Pokémon Go was an instant hit when it launched three years ago, first in Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia on July 6, 2016, then in Europe a week after, and in Japan by the 22nd of the month. In fact, the initial launch was received so well that Pokémon Go experienced technical difficulties that caused delays in many other regions.

When it was first released, Pokèmon Go set a new record for the most downloads in its first week. Millions of people around the world were seemingly addicted, with players spending more time on it than Facebook.

Pokémon Go‘s rising numbers aren’t too surprising. Two months after market introduction, the game was downloaded 500 million times by September 2016. By February 2017, developer Niantic announced that Pokémon Go surpassed 650 million downloads. 800 million downloads was the last figure Niantic announced back in May 2018 before jumping over the one billion download mark.

For clarification, the number doesn’t mean that there are one billion active Pokémon Go players. It also presumably includes re-downloads of players who once abandoned it but later decided to give catching ’em all another red-hot go.

However, calling the game anything other than a wild success would be a lie. It’s grossed over $2.6 billion USD over the past three years, according to Sensor Tower data.

YouTube video

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