Pokemon GO Has Already Hit $1 Billion in Revenue This Year

WhilePokemon GOmay not be experiencing its time in the limelight as it did back in the summer of 2016, Niantics AR hit is still going very strong. This year has seen the company double down on events and new features, which have certainly helped to drive the game forwards. We’ve had theintroduction of Mega Evolutions, anall-new take on GO Festand theintroduction of fan favourites Jessie and Jamesto name but a few things.

Now, showing the fruits of their hard work this year, Sensor Towerhas estimatedthat the game has made over $1 billion in 2020 alone. This is the first time since the game launched that the title has broken the billion-dollar mark in a single year and there’s still over two months of 2020 remaining.

The sharp increase in revenue has likely, at least in part, come from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Like Niantic, players have been forced to adapt their ways of playing and have likely been spending more to compensate for being stuck inside.

Niantic themselves have more than helped fans to increase spending. The introduction of raid invites and remote raid passes, which allow players to attend raids from their own home, has ensured players can still access such a large portion of the game and at $1.50 for three, they don’t come cheap.

Pokemon GO Festis also likely to have played a huge part in the increased spend. While usually, players come together to a single, real-world location, this year they’ve been unable to do so. Cleverly, Niantic dropped the single location idea and made it a worldwide event, meaning everybody could take part. For a fee.

Sensor Tower estimates that in the four years since the game launched, it has generated around $4.2 billion in total revenue, with the United States being the biggest spenders. Android is the most popular operating system for the game, generating $2.2 billion in revenue vs $1.9 billion on the App Store.

WhilePokemon GO’srevenue has been massive this year, it still only ranks as the third-highest grossing mobile title.PUBG Mobiletakes the top spot withHonor of Kingssitting second.