Road to riches! Pokemon GO becomes one of the most successful mobile games of all time; know why

Mobile games are more popular than ever and Pokemon GO is leading the way. The reason is not that tough to find. Since last year, the novel coronavirus pandemic pushed most of the world indoors, leading to a rise in gaming both in India and around the world. Kids and even the adults, are just glued to their devices to get some thrills and also pass the time. The impact is considerable on the gaming world, especially the more popular ones. Data from an analytics firm has revealed that Niantic’s augmented reality (AR) based game Pokemon GO game has grossed over $5 billion, just in time for its fifth anniversary.

According to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, Pokemon GO continues to make money consistently, five years after it was first launched in 2016. The game has now joined a small club of mobile games to cross the $5 billion revenue mark, which can be considered quite a feat considering the game involves moving around in public - of course, you can play it indoors too. The company had made changes to the game last year to adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic, which appear to have worked very well.

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In fact, the company reportedly made a whopping $1.3 billion in revenue last year, according to Sensor Tower. This could be a clear indicator that the changes it put in place to deal with the pandemic have worked wonders. The report states that the company gained 41 percent year-over-year in revenue, with average revenue of $1 billion a year. The company is the most popular in the United States – it reportedly made over 36% of its revenue so far in the US ($1.9 billion), while Japan is second at 32 percent while Germany contributed 5.4 percent of the total revenue.

Unlike many games that see much more revenue from iOS compared to Android, Sensor Tower’s data indicates that the game has made 52.8 percent of its revenue from the Play Store, compared to earnings from Apple’s App Store.

Meanwhile, the company is gearing up for a two-day celebration that will be held on July 17 and July 18, with passes for the event discounted to $4.99 in honour of the game’s fifth anniversary, down from the usual $14.99 fee for the event.