Pikmin Bloom is a curious game. It is a mobile-only AR geo-location application similar to Pokemon Go - only it is barely a game. But since the Niantic title launched on October 26, Pikmin Bloom has been downloaded a surprising number of times.
Since the game launched it has racked up an impressive number of downloads, hitting the two million mark in its first two weeks. The game has Niantic all over it, as it uses AR to overlay digital characters over real locations, using a person's smartphone, and it involves getting the player moving around. Pikmin Bloom sees players growing and picking Pikmin, which are cute little plant-like creatures, collecting seeds, and sending them on adorable missions.
The mobile app store analyst Sensor Tower has collected data that shows Pikmin Bloom has accrued two million downloads in just two weeks, which is surprising considering Pikmin is not such a well known name, and because of the nature of the game itself.
Unlike other Niantic titles such as the massively popular Pokemon Go, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite which recently announced that it would be closing down, Pikmin Bloom contains much less game-like content. Whereas Pokemon Go has you battling Pokemon, flicking Poke balls, and trying to catch them all, Pikmon Bloom is more like a fitness game, gently encouraging players to go outside and walk more, gamifying the experience.
Pikmin was always more popular in its native Japan, where a large percentage of Bloom's downloads have come. More than forty percent of downloads, in fact, with 864,000 downloads coming from Japan, while the United States and the United Kingdom are in second and third place, respectively.
While Pokemon Go saw 75 million downloads in its first two weeks, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was downloaded 12.4 million times at the same stage of its release, these two games both use IP that are far more globally recognised and popular. Pikmin Bloom is not a household name, although GameCube fans will remember Pikmin fondly, so its global reach is not quite as assured.
Still, according to Sensor Tower, Pikmin Bloom has made around $473,000 in its first two weeks - not a bad result considering the production budget for this game has to be much less than the more expensive IPs of Harry Potter and Pokemon. Pikmin Bloom has a long way to go, however, to earn the estimated $15 million Wizards Unite made in its first month and the staggering $300 million Pokemon Go made.