Pokemon Go.
Niantic
The weeks following the July 2016 release of Pokemon Go were the closest humanity may ever come to a hive mind. Millions of people in dozens of countries became enamoured with the game: Friends were made, miles were walked and cars were crashed, all in the name of catching those cheeky pocket monsters. Now, the game has passed an impressive milestone: It has been downloaded 1 billion times.
The news was broadcast by Pokemon Go’s Japanese YouTube channel, in a video translated by Serebii.net. Pokemon Go is often mocked for being a flash in the pan, and it’s certainly true that interest peaked in the weeks following the release. It took just two months for the game to be downloaded 500 million times. But the 1 billion figure shows the game has more than enough life left in it yet.
For clarification, the number doesn’t mean that there are 1 billion active Pokemon Go players. It also presumably includes re-downloads of players who once abandoned it but later decided to give catching ’em all another red-hot go.
But calling the game anything other than a wild success would be a lie. It’s grossed over $2.6 billion over the past three years, according to Sensor Tower data.
