Pokemon GO launched on July 6th and quickly became a global sensation. The game would reach a peak of July 15th with nearly 45 million users. A few weeks later, the combination of poor performance and poorer communication with players began to affect the user base significantly. By the time our August 23rd article about Pokemon GO was published, the game had lost more than 12 million users.
Accoring to digital analytics company Slice Intellicence, the total paying user base for Pokemon GO has dropped 79% from its July 15th peak. Apparently, that has not hurt the game’s profitability too much. It is still the most profitable mobile game by a wide margin.
For August 2016, Niantic’s wunder-app generated a whopping 28.4% of in-game revenue across all mobile games. That’s more than six times the revenue generated by the second place game, Candy Crush Saga. In third place was Candy Crush Soda Saga at 3.5%, followed by Game of War – Fire Age and Mobile Strike at 2.9% and 2.6% respectively.
As mentioned before in the August 23rd article, the success of Pokemon GO has filtered into other areas. The Nintendo 3DS was the best-selling video game system for July 2016, mostly fueled by renewed interest in that handheld system’s Pokemon titles. As detailed in a July 17th article, Nintendo saw its stock prices soar soon after the game’s release on the false assumption that Nintendo published the game. After their stock prices rose in value by almost 70%, they came crashing down after the realization that they had no direct part in the mobile game. The game was developed by Niantic and published by The Pokemon Company, two companies that are partly owned – but not controlled – by Nintendo.
There may yet be more growth to come for Pokemon GO. Apple recently announced that the game will be playable using their newly-announced Apple Watch 2. The Pokemon Go Plus Bluetooth device will also be available soon. These devices will allow players to catch Pokemon and loot PokeStops without having to have their phone out. This may incentivize current players to play the game more while simultaneously pulling old players back in. Regardless, the game seems to be a very healthy revenue stream for Niantic.
