As one of the most popular mobile games globally, Pokémon GO witnessed an influx of new players who spent an impressive amount of money on in-app purchases over the past seven years. However, last year, Niantic’s location-based megahit saw its revenue and downloads significantly drop.
According to data presented by Casinos En Ligne, Pokémon GO’s annual revenue dropped by almost 20% year-over-year to $703 million in 2022, down from $877.6 million a year before that.
The Biggest Annual Revenue Drop so Far
Pokémon Go took the world by storm back in 2016. Within a week of its release, the mobile game had been downloaded over ten million times worldwide, showing the enormous hype about the launch of Nintendo’s first venture into mobile gaming. That year alone, Pokémon Go hit $550.4 million in revenue.
However, the game soon attracted controversy for creating public annoyance and contributing to accidents. As a result, annual revenues dropped by 19.2% to $444.7 million in 2017. The Pokémon Go fan base continued surging in the next three years, pushing player spending to new record highs.
The Statista and App Magic data show 2020 remains the record year by annual revenue, with Pokémon Go players spending $909.1 million on Pokéballs and other in-game items. In 2021, Pokémon reported $877.6 million in revenue from its gaming app, showing a slight 3% year-over-year drop.
However, last year saw the biggest annual revenue drop so far. Statistics show Pokémon Go players spent $703.7 million on the title in 2022 or 19.9% less than a year before. Despite a substantial revenue drop, Niantic’s location-based megahit still hit over $4.7bn in lifetime revenue.
2022 Saw the Lowest Number of Pokémon Go Downloads
Since its release in 2016, Pokémon Go has been downloaded 602 million times worldwide. Around 40% of all downloads were made in the game’s first year.
In 2020 only, when millions of people turned to mobile games amid the COVID-19 lockdown, game was downloaded close to 60 million times, 3 million more than in 2019. However, statistics show it’s been downhill since then, with 2022 marking the lowest annual number of downloads.
Statista and AppMagic data show the game was downloaded 43 million times worldwide last year, or 18% less than in 2021, which saw 52.5 million downloads.
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