AppMagic: Pokémon Go generates $48.5m during 10th anniversary celebrations
Pokémon Go achieved record-breaking in-app purchase revenue during its 10th anniversary celebrations, generating $48.5 million between July 6 and July 12. The surge occurred alongside the Road to Legends event, which featured rotating raids of legendary Pokémon, Ultra Beasts, and Mega-Evolved Pokémon, complemented by signature move unlocks and special cosmetic backgrounds ahead of Pokémon Go Fest: Global.
The week’s in-app purchase revenue represented a 5.9x increase compared to the previous week, establishing a new all-time weekly record for the mobile game. The momentum was reflected in its global market performance, with Pokémon Go ranking as the fourth highest-grossing app worldwide during the same period.
The anniversary celebration demonstrates the continued commercial viability of Niantic’s location-based AR title over a decade after its 2016 launch. The event-driven revenue spike highlights the effectiveness of limited-time content and special encounters in driving monetization within the game’s established player base, underscoring live-service models’ capacity to generate sustained revenue through periodic content updates and celebratory milestones.