"Pokemon GO" income rises instead of falling under the social distancing policy

Data from the Sensor Tower information platform shows that in the first 10 months of 2020, the total revenue of the mobile game "Pokémon GO" (developed by Niantic) has exceeded US$1 billion (approximately CNY6.66 billion).

Since its launch in July 2016, "Pokémon GO" has still been popular among players now. The total revenue of this game reached US$832 million (approximately CNY5.56 billion) at the end of 2016. Although total players’ spending dropped by 29% in 2017, the revenue of "Pokémon GO" sustained continuous growth in the subsequent three years, also, it set a new record in 2020. Only in the first ten months of 2020, the total global players’ spending of "Pokémon GO" was 11% higher than the full-year of 2019, 30% increase on period-to-period comparison.  

Due to the spread of the Covid-19 and the implementation of the home quarantine policy globally, the number of downloads and revenue of mobile games have increased substantially. Nintendo also caught this opportunity to bring home-game function to "Pokémon GO", allowing players to enjoy the game without going out. At the same time, there are also players taking "Pokémon GO" as a safe way to conduct outdoor activities during the epidemic.

In the first 10 months of 2020, "Pokémon GO" ranked 3rd in the global players’ spending list (excluding the third-party Android store). The top two games are Tencent’s “Player Unknown's Battlegrounds” Mobile version (PUBG Mobile) and "Honor of Kings". Israeli game company Moon Active’s "Coin Master" and Japanese game company Mixi’s "Monster Strike" ranked 4th and 5th respectively. "Pokémon GO" ‘s total revenue exceeded US$4 billion.