File photo - A man poses with his mobile phone displaying the augmented reality mobile game "Pokemon Go" by Nintendo in front of a busy crossing in Shibuya district in Tokyo, Japan, July 22, 2016. (REUTERS/Toru Hanai)
The inevitable has happened. Less than a week after posting 50 million installs on Android (and 75 million when combined with iOS), "Pokemon GO" has now surpassed 100 million installs worldwide. All in less than a month since it first debuted in Australia and New Zealand on July 6. What’s even better news for its developer Niantic, is the fact that the game is raking in $10 million every single day.
With that in mind, it’s a little surprising to see App Annie reporting that "Pokemon GO’s" massive financial success and enviable engagement rate hasn’t come at the expense of other games and apps. While the daily revenue figures for games not including "Pokemon GO" did drop in the first week of the game’s release, revenues have essentially returned to what they were before the launch of "Pokemon GO".
Furthermore, App Annie notes it has “not noticed any meaningful declines in daily revenue for top-grossing games like Mobile Strike, Clash of Clans or Candy Crush Saga”. The reason for this, according to the app market researcher, is that “the majority of game revenue comes from a small minority of users and these players are unlikely to be deeply engaged across a multitude of top-grossing games.”
Considering the engagement rates of other popular apps like Facebook, Tinder and Snapchat have not dropped, "Pokemon GO" has been credited with “successfully acquiring a sizable chunk of previously “non-mobile time”.”
But besides just convincing mobile users to spend even more time on their smartphones than they already did, "Pokemon GO" has also been a watershed moment for AR generally and AR gaming in particular, as well as opening up whole new revenue streams for existing apps and real-world businesses.
How much time do you spend on "Pokemon GO"? Any idea how much money you’ve spent?
This story first appeared on Android Authority.
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