We're all used to seeing the mighty numbers raked in on a daily basis by Pokémon GO, but Niantic's monster-catching phenomenon has risen to new heights by generating a staggering $21m USD during its two-day Pokémon GO Fest 2021 event.
The figure, which translates to around £15.4m GBP, comes from new Sensor Tower data shared with Eurogamer; there, it's reported that the Saturday was the "most lucrative" of the two days, easily becoming one of the app's highest-earning days to date.
In an official Niantic recap of the event, which unsurprisingly avoids giving us all the juicy financial stats, the developer reveals that over 1.5 billion Pokémon were caught, that players collectively walked over 125m kilometres, and that over 23m raids were completed.
"Thank you, Trainers, for making this year’s Pokémon GO Fest so special!" Niantic says. "We were delighted to see how much you enjoyed the event, whether at home, at a local park, or even at one of our city celebrations. We look forward to the day that we can all celebrate together again."
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 18
I gave them 1 dollar.
It's worth mentioning that this Go Fest event was much cheaper than last year, the admission fee was only $5.
That's the price of the ticket anyway, people will still pay for Poké Coins so they can get lots of incubators and raid passes.
Actually, it's surprising that Saturday was more lucrative than Sunday. Sunday was the raid focused day which equates to buying lots of raid passes.
It suggests a lot of people bought the Go Fest Ticket on the day itself.
Removed - unconstructive
"pokemon go is a fad, it will die anyday now"
Incredible success for a 5 year-old game.
@westman98 technically, the game did end up diminishing quite a bit in numbers, with most of the people from when it first came out just ending up dropping the app entirely.
@VoidofLight
The game was a literal pop culture phenomenon when it launched. There was no way it could maintain that many users over the long term.
The important thing is that the game still generates a ton of revenue and maintains a strong active playerbase, not to mention boosting the popularity of Pokemon as a whole.
@westman98 but still, the point is that it was a fad that died out. People still play it, yes, but most of the playerbase which played it never truly cared for the game anyways.
For me, yes, because, I have my top favorite Pokemon ^-^ (see my avatar)
@RupeeClock Factor in that they gave out free remote raid passes + free regular raid passes if you spun pokéstops.
@VoidofLight Pokémon Go had 232 Million Players in 2016.
While they lost a lot after people realized it lacked features (like any free online game when it starts), it constantly had 150+ Million Players since 2018, with 166M in 2020. A mere drop of 30% is quite good, considering the game runs for 5+ years now. Wouldn't call that a fad dying out.
People also spent a lot more since 2020 (probably because the pandemic restricts movement so "hooked" players spend more to keep the pace).
Source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/pokemon-go-statistics/
@BowtieShyGuy
So basically it went the way of fortnite
I gave them 2 of those dollars. I thought it was a lot of fun. I had some random 3 dollars Google credit from somewhere so I only paid 2 bucks for my ticket. Caught something like 350 Pokemon, at least a dozen were new dex entries, 5 shinys including a legendary shiny too!
Made for a great weekend! Walked about 6 miles too. Little exercise is always good.
@VoidofLight
If the data that @BowtieShyGuy is referencing is correct, then it's pretty clear "most of the playerbase which played it never truly cared for the game anyways" is nowhere near true.
Just out of curiosity. Why write articles about the millions these companies make? Of course, we want to know about games. But, why also, the profits? I wonder how would gamers feel, if these types of articles were no longer published. If these numbers were kept behind closed doors. Only accessed by those who need to know.
Neato. I bought the $5 ticket, but didn't spend any other money. Wonder how they come up with their numbers..?
I wish I had $21 million
@RupeeClock another factor, Niantic doesn't get their money when players spend pokecoins, they get money when players buy pokecoins.
A player on Day 1 could buy (say) $100 worth of pokecoins on Day 1. Even if it takes that player all year to spend the $100 worth of coins, Niantic still got that $100 on Day 1.
@NorthBidoof
The exception to that are ticketed events, those tickets are bought directly with real money, not in-game currency.
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