Pokémon Go hits $6 billion in player spending

Pokemon Go has reached another milestone by surpassing the $6 billion mark in lifetime spending worldwide. Although Pokémon Go faced a slight decline in revenue, it remains a huge commercial success for the parent company Niantic.

When it was first released in 2016, Pokémon Go was an instant hit, quickly becoming one of the most popular mobile games worldwide. Throughout its history, the game has set numerous records, including multiple Guinness World Records. The game holds the global record for both the most revenue earned by a mobile game and the number of downloads in its first month.

Sensor Tower estimates that in the past six years, Pokémon Go has been downloaded more than 678 million times globally. Besides being popular among gamers, the game was greatly successful also on the commercial front. In the first six months of 2021, the game brought in $641.6 million in revenue and became the seventh most profitable mobile game by the end of the year, with $1.3 billion in revenue from player spending.

In the first quarter of 2022, however, player spending was down nearly 45% year-over-year. That said, Pokémon Go isn’t the only game that has seen a drop in popularity. According to Sensor Tower, the whole mobile gaming sector suffered a setback, with overall market revenue falling by 6%. While Pokémon Go didn’t have the same success as in 2021, it managed to bring in $198.2 million in player spending through the first quarter of 2022.

A decline in popularity?

Although the game generates a significant amount of revenue each year, the hype surrounding it appears to be diminishing. It is understandable for a six-year-old game to see a period of decline, but the community’s response to recent in-game improvements paints a different tale. Niantic has been roundly criticized by players for the new adjustments to the game, with many users having expressed dissatisfaction with low-quality life updates, hefty microtransactions, and the reduced rate of new Pokémon drops.

The developer has also recently faced heavy backlash on the internet from the gaming community, following its most recent event, Pokémon Go Fest 2022. The event didn’t go as planned and many gamers encountered visual glitches and other errors during the event. Several participants had dropped out, and many of those who had purchased a $14.99 ticket sought refunds.

However, in terms of sales, the game had a strong start to the year and upcoming patches may be able to reverse the negative trend and bring the upset fans back to the game.

Header: Pokémon Go