Pokémon Go earned parent Niantic Labs approximately $950 million in 2016. Downloaded more than 500 million times, the game soared to success, hitting 70 percent of that figure within 60 days of launch.
The details are available in market research firm AppAnnie’s report. VentureBeat, which perused through the report, says that the game was downloaded over 500 million times since the game’s launch in July last year.
AppAnnie attributes most of the game’s success on its ability to reach non-gamers. Traditional games like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga took far longer to hit the $600 million mark, something that Pokémon Go achieved with almost casual grace.
Of course, being a Nintendo IP also helped, as did the game’s simple mechanics, core conceit and augmented reality gameplay, suggests the report.
Another interesting finding from the report is that the game did not eat into other games’ revenue. It’s ability to attract a non-gaming audience left traditional games untouched, marking Pokemon Go’s success a win-win for mobile games as a whole.
As far as records go, Pokémon Go was the number 1 game on the App Store and Play Store in terms of downloads and number 3 in revenue. It hit $800 million in 110 days and $950 million in revenue by the end of 2016.
Bolstered by the success of Pokémon Go, a game that Nintendo had only a very small stake in, Nintendo released Super Mario Run, which has received a great response from fans, but has failed to inspire non-gamers the way Pokémon Go managed.
As a result, the company’s stock has fallen and the game has failed to meet expected sales targets. By any other measure, however, Super Mario Run has been a very successful title, however.
