Gamers spent nearly $900 million on Pokemon Go in 2019 — a new record for Niantic after three years

• Pokemon Go’s revenue hit a new all-time high recording an estimated $894 million in user spending.
• This is first time that the Niantic game has breached the $3 billion mark.
• Surprisingly, user spending was a near even-split between Android and iOS users.

Pokemon Go, the addictive game popularised in 2016 due to its use of augmented reality (AR), hit a new milestone in 2019. The Niantic game earned an estimated $894 million in revenue exceeding its previous high of $832 during its launch year.

According to Sensor Tower, Pokemon Go is the only ‘location-based’ game that has ever been able to top its revenue in comparison to its launch year.

Overall user spending on Pokemon Go breached the $3 billion mark for the very first time.


Surprisingly, revenue generation was nearly an even split between Android and iOS users. While 54% of the revenue came from Google Play, the App Store accounted for the other 46%. However, when it comes to installs, Google Play raced ahead with 69% of the total.


Users from Japan accounted for over one-third of Pokemon Go’s revenue in 2019, coming in second only to players in the US where 38% of all user spending was recorded.

American users even lead the pack when it comes to downloads. The US accounted for more than 10 million installs in 2019. However, Brazil and India recorded the second and third most number of installs, respectively.


Among other games in the market, Pokemon Go came in fifth, just behind Candy Crush Saga by King. The top earner for the year was Honor of King by Tencent, which generated close to $1.5 billion. The game likely earned even more since the estimate doesn’t account for user spending in from third-party stores, like those in China where Tencent has its primary base of users.

However, in comparison to other ‘location-based’ games, Pokemon led by far. Its $894 million covers over Dragon Quest Walker, which came in second earning $201 million.

An estimated $61.7 billion was spent on mobile games across both stores last year, according to Sensor Tower. An increase of 12.8% over 2018’s user spending.

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