Pokémon GO Hits $5 Billion in Revenue in 5 Years

If you thought the pandemic would hurt Pokémon GO, then you’d be thinking fairly reasonably. The game inspires players to get out and go into their communities and engage with one another. That’s essentially the one thing we weren’t allowed to do in 2020. Nevertheless, the game grew and hit a huge milestone that Niantic and The Pokémon Company should be wildly proud of.

In just 5 years, Pokémon GO hit the $5 billion revenue mark. SensorTower is reporting the revenue data from the popular mobile game. In 2020 alone, the game earned $1.3 billion globally, a rise of 41 percent year-over-year despite the global pandemic. That’s some real staying power that can be attributed to the game’s pivot to allow players to engage in normal activities without leaving their homes. Just last month, Niantic announced that the game would start reintroducing some of those more mobile modes and features.

The United States is the No. 1 revenue-generating country for Pokémon GO to date, with the title accumulating $1.9 billion or 36.6 percent of its lifetime player spending in the country. Japan ranks No. 2 with 32 percent. 632 million downloads to date is a huge achievement for the game. That puts it far ahead of rival mobile games of a similar vein. Both Dragon Quest and Jurassic Park offer similar “explore and play” titles on mobile devices but neither is doing quite as well as Pokémon GO.

Google Play dominates the actual download market of Pokémon GO, accounting for approximately 487 million installs or around 77 percent. The App Store, Apple’s marketplace, has generated 144.8 million downloads, or approximately 23 percent of the total. If you’re still playing Pokémon GO, then let us know what you think of the latest updates and changes to the game. If you gave up a while ago, it seems like a good time to get back in!