Sensor Tower said that while Supercell’s megapopular Clash Royale is currently closing in on $1 billion itself, it only generated $550 million in its first seven months, which means Pokémon Go brought in cash at nearly twice the rate as Clash Royale.
Not all of the news is quite that rosy. If Sensor Tower’s data lines up with market researcher App Annie, Go has dropped off in the first month of 2017. App Annie reported Go had reached $950 million by the end of 2016, so this would suggest that Go managed to bring in only $50 million in January. This would align with Sensor Tower’s approximation that users are now spending between $1.5 million to 2.5 million per day on Pokémon Go‘s in-game content, compared to the $18 million per day it raked in around launch.
Pokémon Go‘s revenue comes from PokéCoins, which can be bought with real cash, and exchanged for in-game items, power-ups, and general enhancements to get the most out of your time catching wild pocket monsters.
The downward revenue trend isn’t surprising since the number of active users has steadily declined since launch. Active users dropped from 66 million in July to 23 million in November. The game still garners a healthy player base, and it appears that the loss of users has not come from disinterest with the app as a whole.
Special holiday events in the last three months of 2016 invigorated the player base, suggesting that if new and interesting content continues to come to Pokémon Go, users will return in droves.
Since Generation 2 Pokémon appear to be set to arrive soon, Pokémon Go is sure to experience a hearty active player and revenue boost to add to that already impressive $1 billion.
