Pokémon Go has 20m weekly active players nearly nine years after its global launch

Almost nine years on from its release, Pokémon Go continues to reach 20 million weekly active players.

Approximately half of all players log in seven days per week. Across its lifetime, players have collectively walked more than 30 billion miles. This distance has been covered by gamers spanning more than 190 countries and regions.

The latest figures on Go and other Niantic titles emerged alongside confirmation of Scopely’s plans to buy Niantic’s licenced AR games for $3.5bn – namely Pokémon Go, Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom, plus their associated teams.

Between the three, they reached over 30m monthly active users and made more than $1bn in 2024.

Step by step

Pokémon Go’s in-person events have continued to propel the title through the years and brought together millions of people from around the world. Two million tickets were sold just for the 2024 edition of Pokémon Go Fest.

Since in-person events debuted, players have caught over 150m Pokémon. Go’s overall revenue has also increased year-over-year for the past three years. AppMagic estimates show a decline during the same timeframe, indicating a shift to players spending on the web shop, amongst other revenue generators such as sponsorships.

On a smaller scale, Monster Hunter Now saw nearly 20,000 people attend its first in-person event last year, Carnival 2024 in Japan. The “growing playerbase” was said to have “quickly embraced IRL events”.

Niantic also hailed the decentralised, global version that followed as a “roaring success” with more than 38 million monsters slain.

Among the latest figures, it’s been confirmed that over 50% of Monster Hunter Now’s audience plays seven days per week.

Record-breaking year

Lastly, Pikmin Bloom also hosted its first-ever paid in-person event in 2024, with Pikmin Bloom Journey in November. This united more than 10,000 players in Shibuya, Japan.

Pikmin Bloom proceeded to end the “record-breaking year” with over 3.94 trillion steps taken by players in 2024 alone. The title has also reached its highest active player count more than three years after launch.

Also in 2024, more than six million people checked into in-person meetups via Niantic’s social companion app Campfire. Its Wayfarer community app has added over 11.5 million new Wayspot locations to Niantic’s portfolio of games since 2019.