Pokémon Go downloads reach 75 million, smashing all records

Pokémon Go is the fastest-growing reality game ever, by a long shot.

|
Koji Sasahara/AP
Japanese students play Pokémon Go in the street as it is released in Tokyo, on Friday, July 22, 2016.

Pokémon Go came into the gaming world with a bang, capitalizing on a combination of 1990s nostalgia and burgeoning augmented reality technology to earn Niantic, the gaming platform the app uses, record-shattering performance and download numbers.

Data from Sensor Tower, an app store optimization platform, estimates that Pokémon Go has been installed 75 million times across Apple iOS and Google Android platforms. Although industry watchers are already questioning how long such explosive success can be sustained, nothing detracts from the unprecedented launch numbers that Pokémon Go has now posted.

Compared to other popular game applications, Pokémon Go is exhibiting a phenomenal performance. It took only 19 days after its release for the game to surpass 50 million downloads, while the next highest performing games, Color Switch and Slither.io, took 77 and 81 days respectively to reach the same level. And Sensor Tower data predicts that the app may hit 100 million downloads within the first two months.

These numbers come despite the fact that the game is only currently available in 32 of the 100 markets in which the Apps Store and Google Play distribute their content. The game only launched in its homeland Japan, where Nintendo designed the original Pokémon for the Game Boy in 1995, in late July.

According to data by Survey Monkey, the game still sits at the top of the charts, and is the top grossing app, in every country where the game is available. Still the numbers are falling, because even with the probable addition of new markets in the foreseeable future, it is difficult to see how Pokémon Go could sustain such exponential success.

A dip in the number of new users following the initial post-release craze is normal and in all likelihood does not spell the end of Pokémon Go. Most games enjoy a heyday period before sliding down to meet more sustainable numbers.

"As we've seen from other games there's still every chance that the game attracts millions of users (and makes millions of dollars) for months, and even years to come," Survey Monkey wrote in its analysis.

Part of the appeal of Pokémon Go is that it encourages being social and requires its users to get off the couch and explore their neighborhoods and towns in order to play – canceling out some of the biggest complaints about video games: that they promote a sedentary and solitary lifestyle.

But this may not be a fully sustainable model either.

"While that’s part of what makes the game novel and appealing at the moment, it's easy to see how the charm might wear off over time," says James Surowiecki in a column for The New Yorker. "Pokémon Go is also the rare video game whose economic success will be determined in part by the weather. It's a great summertime game, but will anyone bundle up to go Pikachu-hunting when winter rolls around?"

In order to retain its captive audience, Niantic, creator of the real world gaming platform on which the app is based, has promised a number of changes in future updates, including new Pokémons, customizable Pokéstops, and expanded Gym and breeding features.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Pokémon Go downloads reach 75 million, smashing all records
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2016/0726/Pokemon-Go-downloads-reach-75-million-smashing-all-records
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe