Pokémon GO Has Earned $1 Billion in 2020

Pokémon GO has been estimated to have brought in $1 billion in the first 10 months of 2020. Developer Niantic is seeing the most amount of player spending since Pokémon GO launched in 2016.

According to Sensor Tower, estimates place Pokémon GO revenue this year close to $1 billion. When the mobile game launched in 2016, the game earned more than $832 million during the first year. In 2017, player spending dropped off pretty significantly. However, revenue began to rise once again in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, however, the game saw a rather steep incline since January.

A portion of the game’s success may be attributed to the in-game changes Niantic implemented upon the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Changing the way the game functioned, to better suit stay-at-home orders may have given players that extra incentive to start up the mobile game. Additionally, it can be assumed that players latched onto the game during their moments outdoors as many activities were closed down throughout the year.

So far in 2020, Pokémon GO has become the world’s third-highest mobile game in player spending outside of third-party stores. Tencent’s PUBG Mobile has the number one spot while Honor Kings lags sits in the second spot. Lagging behind Pokémon GO is Coin Master and Monster Strike.

Since launch, Pokémon GO has accumulated nearly $4.2 billion in player spending globally. The US has attributed close to $1.5 billion or 36 percent of the total spending across the four years. Japan, on the other hand, has ranked number two with $1.3 billion or 31.3 percent. Germany came in third with $238 million or 5.7 percent.

Niantic has seen the majority of revenue come from Google Play accounts, generating over $2.2 billion or 53.4 percent since launch. Apple’s App Store has generated $1.9 billion, rounding out the remaining 46.6 percent. Since 2016 Pokémon GO has seen close to 600 million unique installs across mobile devices, with the US contributing 109 million or 18.2 percent. Brazil has come in second with 65.2 million or 11 percent. While Mexico has the third-largest number of installs with 37.3 million or 6.2 percent.

Suffice to say that Niantic has been having a lucrative year. The development house has said that it will be removing some of the stay-at-home features. It will be interesting to see if Pokémon GO will maintain its upward trajectory in 2021.

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