- In almost three years, Pokémon Unite has generated $82.7 million in gross revenue on mobile
- Unite has generated 29% of its total mobile revenue from the US market
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The Pokémon Company’s cross-platform MOBA game Pokémon Unite has generated $82.7 million in gross revenue ($57.9m net) to date on mobile as the game celebrates its third anniversary, according to AppMagic estimates.
The US represents its most lucrative market at 29% of total revenue on the platform. Japan follows at 25% of player spending, while South Korea ranks third at 7%.
The current in-game celebration, heating up with the debut of fan-favourite phoenix Ho-Oh, marks three years since Unite first released on Nintendo Switch on July 21st, 2021. Though the mobile anniversary is still two months away on September 22nd, both platforms are celebrating in unison.
During its first full month after launch in October 2021, the game generated $9.4 million, but hasn’t surpassed $3.3 million in any single month since. Its first full year was its highest earning too, accumulating $39.6 million on mobile between September 22nd, 2021 and September 21st, 2022.
In its second year Unite generated $24.6 million on mobile, while in its third year the title has made $18.4 million thus far, with two more months to go.
Strength in numbers
On the downloads front, Pokémon Unite has achieved 92.2 million on mobile by AppMagic estimates, with India and Brazil comprising its largest install bases at 12% each. The US follows at 10%, while Japan accounts for 5% of downloads, making both regions over-proportional in their spending.
Installs follow a similar trend to revenue, having peaked on mobile in October 2021 at almost 14 million and remaining at a fraction of that each month since; its most recent full month, June 2024, saw 1.6 million downloads take place.
Unite developer and Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group has more than tripled the Pokémon roster size over the past three years from 20 playable Pokémon evolutionary lines at launch to 65 today, tapping into one of the series’ main appeals: the Pokémon themselves.
That number gets even larger when considering the in-game evolutionary mechanics, with most Pokémon starting a match in their base form and evolving through gameplay – from Charmander up to Charizard, for example.
As for the latest addition, Ho-Oh marks something of an anniversary trend – bringing a rare, powerful Legendary Pokémon to the roster. It follows in the footsteps of the Legendary Buzzwole just after the first anniversary and the infamous Mewtwo’s Mega X form during the second.
In Ho-Oh’s case, players must engage with Unite throughout the event period – running until August 11th, 2024 – and make the most of free daily rolls in a board game. By completing missions on the board and unlocking items, they can eventually acquire Ho-Oh as a playable character. It’s a clear move to promote player retention, which is currently only 2.6% at day 30 by AppMagic estimates.
Please note: All AppMagic figures unless otherwise stated are gross revenue, to account for App Store and Google Play’s 30% fees. Estimates do not account for player spending on non-mobile platforms, third-party Android stores, web shop revenue or ad revenue.
