After deducting taxes and the levy from Apple and Google's application stores, revenues would more concretely amount to a little more than $5.4 billion for Niantic and The Pokémon Company, which remains a tidy sum. Accounting for 38% and 31% of total spending respectively, the United States and Japan remain the largest Pokémon hunters in the world. Germany (5%), the United Kingdom (3%) and Australia (2%) are much further behind. Downloaded 657 million times, Pokémon GO is by far Niantic's biggest success but remains just as untouchable in the category of augmented reality games, an area in which the 2016 phenomenon game has never really had a rival. In 2023, Pokémon GO still generated 567 million dollars, a drop of 13% compared to 2022. So there is no question of letting the trainers fall asleep: 2024 will be the year of rediscovery with a general overhaul of the graphics, new customization options for the avatar or even a new version of the Cliché GO functionality.
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But the augmented reality market has not taken off
In the world of augmented reality gaming, the closest competitor Pokémon GO is Dragon Quest Walk. But if the latter had its hour of glory, Square Enix's game currently generates a third of what Pokémon GO, knowing that it is only available in Japan. Among Niantic's other titles, Monster Hunter Now has generated $164 million since its release last August, enough to make it the 4th biggest mobile game in augmented reality, a genre in which even franchises are remembered Minecraft and The Witcher failed. The game based on the Capcom license is catching up with the $180 million generated by Jurassic World Alivereleased in 2018 and no longer really relevant.
At Niantic, we also cite Pikmin Bloom, credited with 44 million dollars since its release in October 2021. Generally speaking, it is clear that Pokémon GO alone stifles a market in which almost no one has managed to find what they want. Of more than 100 new titles launched since April 2022, “ only a few managed to achieve significant income », observes AppMagic. This is the case of Koei Tecmo which generated $21 million in revenue in Japan with its Nobunag's Ambition: Shutsujin. Suffice to say that in his field, there is always Pokémon GO and the rest.