"Pokémon Go" has been setting records since it was released. It was the most downloaded app ever in its first week and was the fastest application to reach 50 million installs on the Google Play Store. And now, "Pokémon Go" is the fastest game ever to reach $500 million in revenue.
According to a new report from App Annie, "Pokémon Go" has now recorded exceeded $500 million in global customer spending across Android and iOS, the two widely used mobile platforms on which it is available, and is aiming to hit a billion in revenue by year-end. App Annie says that "Pokémon Go" game reached the new milestone in just over 60 days.
Although Niantic Labs has not yet provided its own figures for "Pokémon Go," during Apple's event yesterday, it did say that "Pokémon Go" has received downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide ever since it was made available and that players have walked over 4.6 billion kilometers combined while playing this popular game, Uber Gizmo reported.
In the event, Niantic Labs said that "Pokemon Go" game will be arriving on the Apple Watch, and also likely played a big role in Apple's related announcement that its App Store had seen 106% year-over-year growth over the course of the last two months alone.
Previously, App Annie had reported in early August that "Pokémon Go" was on track to surpass $350 million in revenue to date, since its early July debut. Only a short time later, and the game has blown past that figure and then some.
For comparison's sake, some other top mobile games have taken longer time than a couple of months to hit the $500 million metric. Its closest competitor is Candy Crush Saga which took over 200 days to bring such revenue. Puzzle & Dragons came in third place, it took over 400 days to rake in that much money.
The report pointed out that in-app revenue alone is not "Pokémon Go's" only source of income. The company is starting to partner with brands such as McDonald for in-app exposure, too. McDonald, a Japan firm became the first sponsored place for the game, turning the restaurant's 3,000 stores in the country into Pokémon Go gyms.
According to Tech Crunch, Niantic announced a partnership with SoftBank, mobile operator this month. This will see the company's 3,700 stores turned into Pokéstops or Pokémon Go gyms.
App Annie also noted that the game still does not seem to be stealing time from other apps, but is instead claiming more of users' "non-mobile time."
Here is a video of "Pokemon Go" coming to Apple watch: