We all go through periods of time when we’re down on our luck, scraping by on meager salaries (if you get salaried work at all). We should all therefore extend our sympathy to Niantic and The Pokémon Company, who are clearly just managing to make ends meet with $6 billion (with a B!) lifetime revenue. That’s only about $1 billion for year, which is only higher than the annual GDP of a few, tiny island nations. That’s so meager. We’d play them the world’s smallest violin but they could probably afford a very large violin. Or, in fact, an entire orchestra.
The data comes from Sensor Tower, which also reports that the game made almost $200 million last quarter alone (only $200 million! Think of the super yachts unbought), more than double that of its closest competitor in the Geolocation AR game market (Dragon Quest Walk). Pokémon GO sits in a $6 billion club with the likes of PUBG, Honor of Kings, Candy Crush Saga, and Clash of Clans. I wonder what they talk about. Besides money.
The US and Japan each account for about a third of PGO spending, with US consumers spending $2.2 billion (36.6% of total revenue) and Japanese gamers accounting for 32.6%. The third place finisher is Germany, who drops off all the way to 5.2%. C’mon Germany! When Lord Bezos and Emperor Musk build massive star cruises for the megawealthy to escape a dying Earth to Neo-Mars, the folks at Niantic are going to want a room or two, and the onus is clearly on you to make sure they can snag a luxury suite. Of course, before then, they’ll hopefully investing the money in, like, making more fun video games or something. That’d be nice. Maybe they can restore the fleeting peace on Earth we all felt the summer of 2016 when Pokémon GO first came out. Though we all know no amount of money in the world could ever replace that magic.
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
