Summer of 2016 will be remembered as Pokémon GO Summer. Millions of people went crazy, started roaming through streets searching for digital monsters. Pokémon GO craze lasted for a couple of months before the game saw a massive drop in active users.
The game managed to earn $950 million during 2016, which is a huge number, especially if we take into account the fact that the game is still unavailable in China, banned in Russia, and was launched in India a month ago. But even that wasn’t enough for the game to end the year in the first place in earnings since Monster Strike and Clash Royale took the first two places in revenue.
Nevertheless, the game managed to become the fastest one to reach $800 in revenue. It took Pokémon GO just 110 days to reach the number. For instance, Candy Crush Saga made $800 million in more than 250 days after its release, while more than 500 days had to pass after the release of Clash of Clans for the game to gather $800 million.
Pokémon GO was downloaded 500 million times in less than two months since its early July 2016 release date, and gamers from around the world walked 8.7 billion kilometers in total since the game saw the light of day. According to the App Annie, a research company who released the report, the main cause of the massive popularity was the fact that the game managed to spark an interest with non-gamer crowd, one of the reasons for the massive drop in active users the game experienced recently. Aside from being interesting to non-gamers, the popularity of the Pokémon franchise, and the game’s social aspects also played a big role in the game’s massive popularity.
At the moment, the game lost a large chunk of its user base, but it is still more popular than most other mobile games.