'Pokemon Go' is already almost as big as Snapchat and Google Maps
The augmented reality smartphone game has been a wild success, netting tens of millions of downloads in the space of a week, and sending Nintendo's stock skyrocketing.
But just how big is it?
By one metric, the app is already almost as big as Snapchat and Google Maps.
SurveyMonkey Intelligence estimates that the smash hit game has more than 11 million daily active users in the United States on Android. That's already far more than Twitter - which has just under 6 million - and if it continues at its current growth rate, it looks certain to overtake Snapchat and Google Maps within a week.
This doesn't mean more people have "Pokémon Go" installed than Twitter/Snapchat/Google Maps - that's not the case. But its users are far more engaged, using the app far more frequently than the others. Tens of millions of people in the US will have Google Maps installed, but they will only rarely open it.
This is pretty crazy: In a blog post, SurveyMonkey points out that, "as unbelievable as it sounds, Pokémon GO Android could surpass Google Maps itself as the largest user of Alphabet's mapping data."
SimilarWeb, which did a similar analysis to SurveyMonkey a few days ago, estimated that more than 60% of people with "Pokémon Go" installed are using it on a daily basis.
(A note: Google doesn't break out this kind of data itself, so we're forced to rely on third-party estimates, which will never be perfectly accurate. All "Pokémon Go's" Android download page says is that it has been installed between 10 million and 50 million times worldwide. Additionally, this data refers only to Android users in the US. The game is only officially available in America and a few other countries, so global comparisons would not be meaningful.)
This wild hype may well drop off over time. The game is hugely popular, but it's not clear whether Niantic, its developer, can build it into a sustainable business - or if it will just be a passing fad.
But right now, its popularity cannot be overstated. According to a separate analysis from SensorTower, people are spending more time in the "Pokémon Go" app on a daily basis than just about any other app - including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram.
