Niantic’s Pokemon GO! debuted back in July 2016, and has earned a whopping $2 billion in revenue since then. The popular mobile game took the world by storm when it was released for smartphones two years ago. From its impressive augmented reality mechanics, to the fact that it encouraged a healthy relationship between gaming and exercise, the game was featured in headlines for outlets all over the world.
However, according to Forbes, the game is now nearing an industry best in terms of its revenue. Pokemon GO! only took 811 days to make $2 billion in revenue, which makes it the third-fastest game in the history of mobile games to do so.
Pokemon GO! beat both Clash Royale and Candy Crush to the punch, and was beaten by only two games: Clash of Clans and Game of War.
However, Pokemon GO! is the only game of the five that isn’t essentially pay-to-play. Although it does feature microtransactions, players can play Pokemon GO! without ever spending a cent. There aren’t any features in the game that are excluded from free play, and players can go out and catch as many Pokemon as they want regardless of whether or not they want to invest real money in the game.
This makes Pokemon GO! the first game that is essentially F2P (free to play) to have made $2 billion in revenue. Although Pokemon GO! is all over the news at the moment due to its recent introduction of what is potentially the first Pokemon Gen 8 Pokemon, it is also important to recognize the game’s milestone achievement of having brought it $2 billion in two years without ever forcing players to pay to play.
You can read about Pokemon Gen 8 leaks here, which include details of the new Pokemon, Meltan, as well as potential release dates for Pokemon Gen 8 on the Nintendo Switch.
