Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm over the first 30 days of its rollout. But to get a sense of exactly how big a phenomenon it’s been, consider this: The augmented-reality game has proven to be eight times more popular than Candy Crush Soda Saga was in the first month after it was released in October 2014.
Since its launch on July 6, Pokémon Go had brought in nearly $200 million in sales by Friday (Aug 5) evening, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower. Currently, the game is raking in $10 million a day. Off the bat, the game paralleled Clash Royale’s trajectory when it was released at the start of 2016, but Pokémon’s growth took off after its much-anticipated Japanese release on July 22.
As of today (August 8), the game has taken in $215 million and been downloaded over 125 million times worldwide, according to Sensor Tower. By July 12, iOS users were spending 33 minutes a day in the app, more time than what Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram capture. Notably, users aren’t cutting back on those other apps, but finding extra time to devote to Pokémon Go.
Although users are now spending less than a half hour a day playing the game, it continues to reign in app-land. The game briefly slipped to number 2 in the US App Store but it has since regained the top spot. And there’s room to grow: Pokémon Go launched in 15 more countries on August 5, and large Asian markets in India, Korea, and China eagerly await its arrival.
The viral-hit game has been a boon to its creators, Niantic Labs, which has seen its valuation pushed to $3.65 billion. For a while, Nintendo piggybacked on its franchise’s roaring success—until investors realized that Nintendo didn’t really make the game.
The app has had its fair share of problems, though. There have been server overloads and unfavorable updates. Careless players have trespassed into restricted areas—even venturing into land ridden with mines— and others have fallen prey to crimes like robberies and shootings. The game was deemed blasphemous in Saudi Arabia, and is being banned in Iran for security reasons.
Even so, there appears nothing that can stop Pokémon Go in the near future.