Pokémon Go has brought in almost $ 2 billion since its inception

Pokémon Go has brought in almost $ 2 billion since its inception

VIDEO - Two years after its launch, and despite a sharp drop in the number of users, the famous smartphone game continues to reap revenue.

It is a beautiful birthday present. Two years after its release, the revenue earned by the game Pokémon Go reached $ 1.8 billion (about 1.54 billion euros). This equates to $ 2 million reported per day according to Sensor Tower, a company specializing in the study of the ecosystem of mobile applications.

With 800 million downloads, Pokémon Go is a worldwide success. This game uses two technologies: augmented reality and geolocation of the smartphone. Its users move in real places, traced with the GPS of his phone, and then capture Pokémon. The 3D image of the little monsters is then superimposed on real photos taken on the smartphone.

Pokémon Go, the goose that lays the golden eggs of mobile games

Pokémon Go is developed by Niantic, a former subsidiary of Google, in collaboration with the Pokémon Company, which manages Pokémon licensed products worldwide, and of which Nintendo is a shareholder. The game has been an outstanding success for the mobile apps industry. At the height of its popularity, in August 2016, it recorded more than 94 million monthly active players worldwide. In January 2017, just six months after its release, Pokémon Go had already reached one billion dollars in revenue. Still today, it is one of the top 10 apps generating the most revenue on iOS and Android in the US, according to App Annie.

Essentially free, Pokémon Go derives its revenue from two main sources. Players can buy "PokéCoins", a virtual currency sold in the application between 1 and 110 euros depending on the desired amount. On this playground, it is the users in the United States and Japan who spent the most money: respectively $ 607 and $ 500 million for two years, according to the figures of Sensor Tower. Its business model also relies on sponsored locations, where users are invited to come and play.

Hard to know the exact number of Pokémon Go players today. In April 2017, Niantic claimed an audience of 65 million monthly users, a figure that remains high for a mobile game. Despite the drop in popularity, Pokémon Go is maintained and updated regularly. New generations of the famous pocket monsters are now available as well as new features such as the exchange of Pokémon between players. In addition, Niantic is about to launch a new mobile game inspired by Harry Potter sagas. Baptized Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the game will resume the principle of augmented reality by allowing players to cast spells and fight monsters.