Pokémon Go has broken their record in 2016. According to Sensor Tower, the game saw a huge surge in downloads in the last days of December. VG247 reported that Pokémon Go earned the highest revenue of 31st December since its July launch.
The holiday weekend got a lot of players to the game and the number of downloads surged past the records of Halloween and Thanksgiving. Post Halloween, new Pokémon were introduced into the game, which explained the increase in players.
On 31st December, the app earned almost $4.9 million. Players in the US crossed their in-app purchase record since the game’s first released in the country. The total figure spent by the players in the last week of December is a staggering $222.1 million.
Pokémon Go became the most downloaded app last year and beat Clash of Clans and Clash Royale to reach the top. While these games saw an increase in the number of players, Super Mario Bros saw a fall during the same time since it had a price tag of $10.
Super Mario Run broke records when it entered the most downloaded app, four days after its launch. However, Pokémon Go soon overtook the game becoming a cultural phenomenon. Everyone seems to be playing Pokémon Go and catching Pokémons.
According to MCV UK, Apple has named Pokémon Go as the most downloaded app in 2016. The download for Pokémon Go peaked on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Apple announced that the other apps that were most downloaded included Prisma, Procreate, Lumino City, Sweat with Kayla, Pro, and Reigns.
Apple didn’t reveal how much each of these apps from their downloads, but reports suggest that Apple has earned over $20bn in the previous year, which is 40% more than what they had got in 2015. December was the magic month for Apple since the company earned over $3bn from purchase in that month.
Philip Schiller, the senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Apple, issued a statement on their website. He said that 2016 had been a great year for the company and after generating a revenue of $20 billion for their developers, the company is off to a good start in 2017.
According to Business Insider, Apple began to get a smaller share of the Apple Store revenue if the app developers went for a subscription offer. The subscription option itself fetched Apple over $2.7 billion. Apple also stated the advertisements in the Store have a 50% conversion rate.
The App Store has become the major game changer for Apple, and it hopes to continue the trend in the coming year. With Apple iPhone sales going down, the company would love to earn revenue from other sources.
The main reason for Apple’s large revenue is the success of Pokémon Go. The app didn’t just create a ripple in the Apple App Store, but also the Google Play Store. It also helped improve the sales record for Nintendo 3S.
Pokémon Go was also responsible for the success of Pokémon Sun and Moon. The game received a huge boost from Pokémon Go and went on to sell more than 1.5 million pieces in the first week of launch.
The success of Pokémon Sun and Moon made it the best launch in the franchise.
On seeing the immense success of Pokémon Go, Niantic organized a Twitter Poll to find out what Pokémon Go events the players would want in this year. The results were officially announced on 12th January, and the majority of the players have chosen Halloween Celebration.