Even if there were no numbers to look at, it’s hard to deny that Pokemon GO is one of the most popular games in the industry right now. In fact Apple has confirmed that as far as iOS apps are concerned, the game has managed to break an iTunes App Store record by being the most downloaded app in its first week in history.
Unfortunately Apple declined to give any specific numbers or mention which app held the previous record, but either way we suppose it’s still huge. It had been previously estimated that the game could pull in as much as $1 billion a year in terms of revenue, and financial firm Needham also estimated that the game and its in-app purchases could earn Apple $3 billion over the course of the next 12-24 months.
Obviously Apple can’t make more than the creators of the game so it seems that the numbers don’t really add up, but basically it is a potential cash cow. The game has also caused Nintendo’s stocks to almost double in value and even surpass Sony’s market value, but the big question remains as to whether or not the game will be able to retain its popularity in the long run.
Games like Angry Birds didn’t exactly explode with the same level popularity at the start and it managed to sustain itself for quite a while, so we are curious if this explosion in popularity is due to the novelty of it, or if this is truly a Pokemon game that gamers have been waiting for all this while.
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