‘Pokémon Go’ Celebrates Two-Year Anniversary With $1.8 Billion Revenue Milestone
By Brittany Vincent
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “
Pokémon Go
” reached an impressive milestone on its second anniversary: hitting $1.8 billion in revenue in the two years since its original release on
and
Android
platforms, according to at least one analyst.
Analyst
Sensor Tower reports
that players around the world continue to spend a whopping $2 million each day, which can be attributed to the
650 million game downloads
announced during March’s Game Developers Conference. Sensor Tower estimates that the United States and Japan have lead player spending, comprising 34 and 28 percent respectively of the game’s revenue across the App Store and Google Play.
The largest portion of “Pokémon Go’s” earnings come from the Google Play store with 58 percent attributed to those with devices, and the App Store making up the other 42 percent.
Developer Niantic’s massively popular augmented reality game blossomed into a household name soon after its official release. It allows players to capture Pokémon while exploring the real world, stumbling upon various monsters while playing as if they were walking around in the video games’ “tall grass,” where the monsters typically hide.
The title is free to download and play on both iOS and Android, but there are various options to purchase in-game currency that can be spend on Lure, Poké Balls, and other goodies that can help players capture additional monsters. Recently, added in the ability to trade Pokémon with friends and offer gifts to other trainers.
This isn’t the first sales milestone the game has reached. According to
Newzoo
, the mobile game earned an astonishing $470 million just 80 days following its launch. With several updates planned for future iterations of the game, as well as new Pokémon, Community Day events, and various other real-world gatherings for Trainers to meet up at, it looks like the only place for “Pokémon Go” to head in the coming days is up as it enjoys its return to the spotlight.
The game has still yet to be rolled out in China, which will no doubt help bolster its performance worldwide even further.
