Niantic’s powerhouse Augmented Reality (AR) game Pokémon GO has celebrated its third anniversary, and to date has generated over $2.65 billion in revenue - with no signs of slowing. According to Sensor Tower, this places Pokémon GO in a dominant spot over the likes of Clash Royale and Candy Crush Saga, but not quite reaching Clash of Clans, which sits at a comfortable $3.16 billion at its same three-year point.
Of that gross revenue, 35%, or about $928 million came from the United States base of players. Japan followed with around $779 million, and from there the markets were far smaller, with Germany trailing in third at $159 million, or 6%. The numbers indicate that Pokémon GO remains one of the top earners for both Android and iOS devices, ranking No. 8 among all apps in June for worldwide revenue.
Fans of the game will not likely be surprised by the information.The game began as an absolute hit during its first few months in 2016. It has since retained a loyal following by making substantial quality of life improvements to the game, and by adding new content at a steady pace. Even now, players are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Team Rocket into the game, something that has been highly anticipated since the launch of the app.
Conversely, it will be interesting to see how well Niantic’s other new AR game does, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The game has not yet been out for a full calendar month, but preliminary data suggests that the new game is not doing as proportionally well as Pokémon GO did during its release.
This news came at the end of June, when it was revealed that the comparable launch base of players between the two games was radically different. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite had but a fraction of the players that Pokémon GO had during its launch. In the U.K. for instance, Pokémon GO had over 7.6 million unique game installs, while Wizards Unite had hardly over 400,000.
Perhaps Pokémon GO will continue to dominate the market. Players may not feel that a switch to a similar game is worth the time, especially with all the work put into progressing their trainer characters and Pokémon over these past three years.
For now, we can likely expect Pokémon GO to continue pulling in similar streams of revenue. There doesn't seem to be any real challenge to the mobile market at the present, and nothing is on the horizon that could dethrone it or Clash of Clans.