Pokémon Go Hits Record $48.5M Weekly Revenue for 10th Anniversary

Ten years after changing the mobile gaming landscape, Pokémon Go is proving its monster-catching magic is stronger than ever. During its 10th-anniversary week from July 6 to July 12, the beloved live-service title generated a staggering $48.5 million USD in in-app purchases. Driven by the highly anticipated "Road to Legends" event leading up to Pokémon Go Fest: Global, player spending surged to 5.9 times higher than the previous week. This monumental spike set a brand-new all-time weekly revenue record for the decade-old game, making it the fourth highest-grossing app worldwide for that seven-day stretch.

The anniversary event featured rotating raids of legendary Pokémon, Ultra Beasts, and Mega-Evolved Pokémon, complete with signature move unlocks and special backgrounds. Matthew Reynolds, editor of the dedicated Pokémon Go publication One More Catch, explained to Gamesindustry.biz, that the week was a massive draw because just about every legendary Pokémon returned to raids. He also pointed to the optional $20 premium battle pass, which offered players a Gold Bottle Cap, a rare and powerful item allowing trainers to fully maximize a Pokémon's stats.

The week was ultimately capped off by the annual Pokémon Go Fest: Global event and the full debut of Mega Mewtwo, arguably one of the most anticipated Pokémon in the franchise's history. Reynolds noted that even if monetization has increased recently, the game has done exceptionally well at keeping its core loop accessible for free players. By adding two or three major features a year since its debut, like trading, player battles, and shiny encounters, the developers have successfully built the full Pokémon experience fans were asking for at launch.

Global Push and Lifetime Revenue Estimates

The game's recent 30-day snapshot is just as impressive as its record-breaking week. Over the past month, Pokémon Go pulled in $98.1M in revenue and racked up just over 4M new downloads. Players in the United States led the financial charge, accounting for 37% of the recent revenue, with Japan following closely at 27%. When it came to fresh player growth, India led the pack by contributing 22% of recent downloads, while the United States brought in 14%.

Thanks to this massive global push, Pokémon Go ranked as the seventh highest-grossing app globally for the entire month of July, beating out industry heavyweights like Roblox. Since its earth-shattering debut in 2016, Pokémon Go has been downloaded over 700M times and has generated a minimum of $6.4B in lifetime revenue from in-app purchases, according to AppMagic estimates. 

Following Scopely’s acquisition of Niantic’s games business, Scopely said the portfolio generated more than $1B in 2024 and had reached more than 800M players across 150 countries and regions. With ten years in the books, many players might wonder if a sequel is on the horizon. Following the acquisition, Scopely's president of games, Ed Wu, alongside head of M&A operations Heather Tacskovics, confirmed that a direct follow-up is not in the cards.

Wu, who previously served as the Senior Vice President of Pokémon Go at Niantic, explained to Gamesindustry.biz, that doing a sequel within a franchise like this is clearly not the right move. He emphasized that the game has built a massive community because it integrates into players' daily lives and explorations, and dividing that community simply doesn't make sense. If the studio eventually pursues something new, Wu stated it will have to approach the genre from a completely different angle, while still maintaining the core mission of inspiring people to explore the world together.