Pokémon Go generated over $48.5 million in in-app purchase revenue during its 10th anniversary week, according to AppMagic data.
This increase occurred during the Road to Legends event, held from July 6 to July 12.
The event featured rotating raids of legendary Pokémon, Ultra Beasts, and Mega-Evolved Pokémon, alongside signature move unlocks and special backgrounds on the run up to Pokémon Go Fest: Global.
As a result, in-app purchase revenue was 5.9 times higher than the previous week and set a new all-time weekly record for the game.
During the same week, Pokémon Go ranked fourth among the world’s highest-grossing apps.
In the past 30 days, the game generated $98.1 million in revenue and received just over four million downloads.
The US accounted for 37% of revenue, followed by Japan at 27%. India contributed 22% of downloads, with the US at 14%.
For July, Pokémon Go ranked as the seventh highest-grossing app globally, ahead of Roblox.
“The 10th anniversary week was a huge draw for several reasons,” Matthew Reyonlds, editor of dedicated Pokémon Go publication One More Catch, tells GamesIndustry.biz.
“The ‘Road of Legends’ event saw just about every legendary Pokémon return to raids, while the optional £20/$20 battle pass offered a Gold Bottle Cap, a rare and powerful item which allowed players to fully max out a Pokémon’s stats.
“The week was then capped off by the annual Pokémon Go Fest: Global event and the full debut of Mega Mewtwo, one of the most anticipated Pokémon in the game.”
Reynolds added: “Even if monetisation has increased since the Scopely acquisition, Pokémon Go has done well to keep the core loop accessible for free players, while adding two or three major features a year since its debut.
“Features such as trading, player battles, and shiny encounters have helped it become the full Pokémon experience many were asking for at launch.”
Since its 2016 launch, Pokémon Go has been downloaded over 700 million times and has generated more than $6.4 billion in revenue, according to Appmagic estimates.
Following Scopely’s acquisition of Niantic, GamesIndustry.biz spoke to Scopely’s president of games Ed Wu and head of M&A operations Heather Tacskovics about the game’s future – which does not involve a sequel.
“I think that doing a sequel within a franchise is pretty clearly not the correct thing to do,” said Wu, who was previously SVP of Pokémon Go at Niantic.
“There’s such a big community because of the way that our games can be a part of folks’ lives wherever they go, however they explore the world. Creating a sequel that divides the community doesn’t make as much sense.
“If and when we do something new, it will really have to be from a different angle, but still with this notion of inspiring people to explore the world together.”
