'Pokemon Go' is already bigger than Tinder, and it's about to overtake Twitter
Last week, Nintendo and Niantic brought out "Pokémon Go," an augmented reality smartphone game that has players exploring the real world to collect Pokémon and items, and to battle other players.
It's proving wildly popular. Just how popular?
Well, it's already bigger than Tinder.
According to data from SimilarWeb, Pokémon Go has already been installed on more Android smartphones in the US than dating app Tinder, which is itself a runaway hit. As of July 8, the game was on 5.16% of all US Android phones - versus just over 2% for Tinder.
And that's not all.
According to a different metric, "Pokémon Go" is set to shortly overtake social network Twitter.
Daily active users measures what proportion of the smartphone population uses an app on any given day. And on July 8, just over 3% of US Android owners were using the game daily - against around 3.5% for Twitter - with Pokémon Go's rate rising fast as new users continue to install the app.
There isn't more recent data available - but "Pokémon Go" may well have already overtaken Twitter.
Tinder was launched back in 2012, five years ago. Twitter came out in 2006 - a decade ago. "Pokémon Go" came out last week.
This success is causing teething problems for the app. Users are reporting frequent crashes and bugs, while the company has "paused" its international roll-out - meaning it is currently only officially available in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. (However, there are workarounds that let you install it in other countries.)
The runaway success of "Pokémon Go," which was built with the help of Google spin-off Niantic, has sent Nintendo's stock soaring 23% in a day. It's the company's best one-day jump since the 1980s.
Here's one last chart showing how "Pokémon Go" compares to other apps, again from SimilarWeb. Users are currently spending far more time in the app per day than other some popular apps, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Snapchat.
