Pokémon Go took $48.5m in its 10th anniversary week, AppMagic says

Pokémon Go generated more than $48.5 million in in-app purchase revenue during the week of its 10th anniversary celebrations, according to AppMagic figures reported by GamesIndustry.biz. The total was 5.9 times the game’s revenue in the previous week and an all-time weekly record for the title.

The spike covers the Road to Legends event, which ran from July 6 to July 12. The event rotated raids featuring legendary Pokémon, Ultra Beasts and Mega-Evolved Pokémon, and paired them with signature move unlocks and special backgrounds in the run-up to Pokémon Go Fest: Global. Across that week the game ranked fourth among the world’s highest-grossing apps.

Reynolds added that the week closed with the annual Pokémon Go Fest: Global event and the full debut of Mega Mewtwo, and argued that the game has kept its core loop accessible to free players even as monetisation increased following Scopely’s acquisition of developer Niantic.

Where the money comes from

Over the past 30 days the game took $98.1 million in revenue and drew just over four million downloads, AppMagic estimates. The United States accounted for 37% of revenue and Japan for 27%, while India supplied 22% of downloads against 14% from the US. For July as a whole, Pokémon Go ranked as the seventh highest-grossing app globally, ahead of Roblox.

Since its 2016 launch the game has been downloaded more than 700 million times and has generated over $6.4 billion, on AppMagic’s estimates. Scopely, which acquired Niantic’s games business, has said it does not intend to follow the game with a sequel. Ed Wu, the company’s president of games and previously senior vice president of Pokémon Go at Niantic, told GamesIndustry.biz that dividing the existing community would not make sense, and that anything new would have to approach the idea from a different angle.