Pokemon Go seized the world by storm when it first rolled out in July, and it continues to enjoy a sizable playerbase, despite a sharp drop-off in daily users. Nowhere is this more evident than in recent market analytics, which suggest that Pokemon Go is still the king of the mobile market, even after losing 79% of its paying users.
Like a lot of mobile games, Pokemon Go is free-to-play but offers a few paid-for extras known as IAPs (in-app purchases) aka microtransactions. Conventionally, only a small chunk of players of any given free-to-play game will purchase these extras, but with Pokemon Go reaching a reported 40 million players worldwide at its peak, that’s still a heck of a lot of people. And that means that even though the game’s popularity is waning, its cashflow remains considerable.
Slice Intelligence reports that as of the end of August, Pokemon Go accounted for approximately 28.4% of all mobile game revenue. All of it. For perspective, its closest competition — King’s Candy Crush Saga — sits at a modest 4.5%. And Pokemon Go’s popularity is having ripple effects across the franchise, with merchandise sales reaching a historic high… and it’s not even Halloween season yet, which, Slice says, is when those sales tend to peak. Get ready for a lot of Ash Ketchums this October.
Mobile revenue breakdown for August 2016, via Slice Intelligence.
And developer Niantic isn’t sitting on its laurels: today saw the release of the Pokemon Buddy System which lets you spend some quality bonding time with your favorite critters, particularly series mascot Pikachu. We still have yet to see the long-fabled trading system and a complete roll out for the new ‘nearby Pokemon’ feature, as well.
Those interested in reading about Slice’s methodology and some links to further stats are encouraged to check out the full report here!
