When asked whether games like Pokémon Go will see things like advertisements or obstructive game mechanics, like an energy bar that drains every time the game is played, with more energy being available for purchase, Steranka said no. For context, these kinds of things are present in many smartphone games, especially if they’re free-to-play.

“If there’s one takeaway that I would love for people to have from this conversation, it’s that definitively no, that is not happening in Pokémon Go – not now, not ever,” Steranka said.

“Again, Scopely really recognises how unique this game is, and they’ve told us themselves that they would be foolish to try to change the recipe of what’s made this such a huge hit and a success. So yeah, absolutely not. We will not be building into our games any type of obtrusive ads or anything like that.”

“I just really want to reiterate Scopely as a company, the way that they operate is they give all of their teams the agency to make the decisions that’s right for their games. And that is not something that we feel would ever be right for Pokémon Go.”

Steranka also said that, while Scopely will be running the development team for Pokémon Go, the game will not be selling any of the data it collects from players to third parties. He reiterates that the only reason Pokémon Go needs a player’s location data is to make sure that the game runs properly.

“We do not sell player data to third parties, full stop,” said Steranka. “We only leverage location data to operate the game, and we store any location data needed to operate the game on US-based servers, and we follow all of the incredibly strict regulatory best practices to protect that data as best as we can.”

Scopely’s acquisition of the development team behind Pokémon Go, along with the teams working on Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now, was announced earlier this month. Alongside the development teams, Scopely has also acquired the licenses to run these titles.

As for Niantic itself, the company plans on continue running its own AR games, namely Ingress Prime and Peridot. The company plans to spin off its technology-based holdings into a new company dubbed Niantic Spatial Inc. This company will be helmed by Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke.

In a statement released alongside the announcement of the acquisition, Scopely told Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now players that it admires the audience that the titles have built up, and that Scopely wants to continue supporting the developers in making the games how they want.

“We believe our partnership with the Niantic games team – who will all join Scopely through this acquisition – will further enable them to achieve their exciting long-term goals, which are designed first and foremost with you in mind,” said the company.

Scopely, known for making Monopoly Go, will also be acquiring other Niantic-run services and companion apps like Campfire and Wayfarer.

Pokémon Go has by far been Niantic’s biggest game; as of 2024, it boasted more than 100 million unique players and maintained a player base of more than 20 million monthly active users. The company reported more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024.

According to the announcement, the studios acquired will continue to run their games and follow their planned content roadmaps. Studio leads Kei Kawai, and Ed Wu will also work on the titles under Scopely.

“Scopely has always been focused on cultivating meaningful communities through a shared love of play, and the Niantic games organization is one of the best in the world at this endeavour,” said Scopely’s chief revenue officer and board member Tim O’Brien in a statement. “We are extremely inspired by what the team has built over the last decade, delivering innovative experiences that captivate a vast, enduring global audience and get people out in the real world.”

“We look forward to further accelerating the team’s creativity through our partnership. Few games in the world have delivered the scale and longevity of ‘Pokémon Go’, which reached over 100 million players just last year.”

O’Brien also spoke about how Scopely will continue to run things as they have been going for popular titles like Pokémon Go, mentioning its live events.

“The experience also stands apart for its unique ability to foster in-person connections, with Pokémon Go live events attracting millions of attendees,” he said. “After spending time with the Niantic team, it quickly became clear that this organization shares our inclination to create industry-leading outcomes and exceptional player experiences. We look forward to a bright future ahead.”

After completing the acquisition, Niantic plans to spin off its technology-based holdings into an entirely new company, Niantic Spatial Inc. This entity will have Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke at its helm and will focus its efforts on being what it refers to as a “geospatial AI company”.

While Scopely will acquire the licensed games business, Niantic will continue to work on its own AR games, namely Ingress Prime and Peridot.

Capping off the announcement has been Scopely’s statement to players of Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now. In this statement, the company talks about respecting the games and wanting to allow its developers the freedom to continue developing them.

“We have long admired the innovative gameplay pioneered by the Niantic games team and the vibrant communities that have shaped the titles into the beloved experiences they are today. We deeply respect what makes these games special – the freedom to explore, the community forged along the way, and the thrill of discovery,” Scopely said.

“We believe our partnership with the Niantic games team – who will all join Scopely through this acquisition – will further enable them to achieve their exciting long-term goals, which are designed first and foremost with you in mind.”

However, Pokemon GO developer Niantic has disputed the accuracy of those numbers. In a statement provided to Eurogamer, the company said that the title’s aforementioned revenue estimates are inaccurate, and that its revenues in 2023 are currently trending higher than 2022’s numbers.

“We generally don’t comment on third-party estimates of our revenue as they are often incorrect, which is the case here,” Niantic said. “Our revenue so far in 2023 is up on last year.”

Niantic also added that it tends not to focus on monthly numbers for the game, owing to their generally fluctuating nature, and noted that in-person Raiding in Pokemon GO has seen an uptick since Remote Raids were removed in a controversial update.

Original story follows:

Pokemon GO has been one of the biggest games in the mobile space for as long as it’s been around, and over the course of the last seven years, it’s been a massive money maker on a consistent basis. The last couple of months, however, have seen a downward trend where its revenues are concerned.

That’s as per a report published by Mobilegamer.biz, which reveals that Pokemon GO was the twelfth-highest grossing mobile game worldwide with over $34.7 million raked in. That, however, is down from revenues of $42.8 million March, which itself was down from February’s $58 million revenue. The 40% drop over this period aligns with Niantic’s controversial decision to rework Remote Raids.

Interestingly, as VGC points out, Pokemon GO earned roughly $58 million in revenues on average per month in 2022, which means the last couple of months have seen the game performing well below average. In fact, the mobile title’s April numbers are the lowest it has seen in over years, since February 2018.

Mobile revelation Pokemon GO is refusing to show any signs of slowing down, and Niantic and The Pokemon Company have every intention of continuing to add to the game. During the recent Pokemon Presents presentation, The Pokemon Company announced that on March 1, the mobile game will add Alolan Pokemon to its ever-growing roster, which means players will soon be able to catch species that first appeared in Pokemon Sun and Moon. From now until then, you can catch Alolan Exeggutor in the game as well.

More announcements will be coming as the Pokemon Presents presentation progresses, so stay tuned for those details.

During the event, players can expect to find Wooloo, Skwovet, and Falinks during their travels. Furthermore, Pokemon like the legendary duo Zacian and Zazamenta will be also be available in limited-time raid events. Much of this is the collaboration with Pokemon Sword and Shield, and interested fans should definitely log into the game during the event.

In addition to this Pokemon Go news, a bunch of new information about Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl was also revealed during the event. Fans also got to know more about Pokemon Unite‘s mobile release date, which is launching on September 22 for Android and iOS platforms.

And it’s crossed a pretty major landmark as far as commercial performance goes as well. As per a new report by Sensor Tower, Pokemon GO has raked in over $5 billion in revenue since it launched in 2016, which is up from $2.5 billion a couple of years ago- which should tell you something about the growth it has been enjoying.

The game has generated $1 billion on average each year, and in the first half of 2021, brought in $641.6 million in revenue- which, incidentally, is its best ever start to a year, and up 34% from 2020’s first half (and a whopping 130% from 2017’s first half). The United States remains the game’s most successful nation, followed by Japan, and then Germany.

Pokemon GO enjoyed its best year ever in 2019, and then again in 2020. That growth would have been impressive to see in any situation, but considering the COVID pandemic, it becomes even more so, especially given the very nature of the game (though the developers did make smart alterations to ensure that it wouldn’t be impacted).

Since its explosive launch, Pokemon GO has gone on to enjoy incredible success, and even with a few dips here and there (especially for a perod after its release), on the whole, the game has been a major money-printing machine for The Pokemon Company. 2019, for instance, was its biggest year ever in terms of revenue generated, and now that record has been toppled with its very next year.

As per SuperData’s newest report on the games industry’s digital side of things for all of 2020, Pokemon Go beat its 2019 revenue generation convincingly, with twice as much revenue raked in. The game made $1.92 billion across 2020, up from $894 million in 2019. It was also the fifth highest grossing free-to-play title of the year, behind Honor of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite, Roblox, and Free Fire. 

This is particularly impressive given the fact that Pokemon GO is a game that tends to rely entirely on outdoors activities and social interactions, both of which were stifled almost completely in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, developers Niantic introduced significant changes to the game in response to the pandemic to allow players to enjoy it from their homes, which contributed significantly to its massive revenue numbers.

With the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, a lot of us are stuck at home. Either not at work or being forced to work remotely from home, it’s had the result that many people are playing a lot of games nowadays. I imagine one of those games isn’t Pokemon GO, due to the nature of how it’s played. But it seems as if steps are being taken for you to get your GO fix even at home.

Developer Niantic explained that they will be reworking how raids will work. You will actually be able to participate in raids indoors for the first time ever. Adventure Sync will track your footsteps in-door, so doing things like housework or home workouts will count. They also have plans to redo their summer events to be more indoor-friendly in general for the future. You can read more about it in their blog post through here.

Pokemon GO is available now for all compatible iOS and Android devices.

Game Freak’s Pokemon Sword and Shield has done exceptionally well since release, selling over 16 million units across both versions as of December 31st 2019. While new Pokemon were revealed as part of the upcoming expansions, one new Mythical Pokemon will be revealed next month for the Switch titles. According to Pokemon Japan, the reveal will take place on February 27th to celebrate Pokemon Day 2020.

The Mythical Pokemon will be appearing in the upcoming Pokemon the Movie: Coco on July 10th so film-goers also have something to look forward to.. Pokemon Day 2020 will also see a new Max Raid battle for Pokemon Sword and Shield players. Pokemon GO and Pokemon Masters players can also expect announcements.

As for Pokemon Sword and Shield’s expansions, the first is The Isle of Armor, out in June 2020. This will be followed by The Crown Tundra, which releases in Fall 2020. Both expansions will provide over 200 new Pokemon to collect along with new outfits, Legendaries and new locations. Stay tuned for more details on both in the coming months.