The success of Pokémon Go is undeniable to anyone who has been paying attention this past month since its release on July 6th. Pokémon Go managed to become the top grossing app on the same day it launched, and shortly after it became the biggest mobile game in US history; beating Candy Crush, Draw Something and Clash Royale. Pokémon Go generates more revenue in an average day, and has a better user retention rate than any other mobile app. Pokémon Go also touts an impressive 21 million users with 4-5 million downloads per day, making its popularity undeniable.
The success of Pokémon Go can most likely be attributed to the ease of use and the wide fan base of the Pokémon franchise, which appeals to older nostalgic fans and to kids and teens who are playing the current generation of Pokémon games. The significant adoption of Pokémon Go is a very good sign of things to come for AR technology and gaming alike. One of the biggest hurdles that Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality need to overcome is the feeling of skepticism from the masses, which makes Pokémon Go the perfect solution to this problem. Anyone who owns a smartphone can play Pokémon Go; which makes it very low risk to try out; and if the stats are any indication, people are liking their experiences with AR technology.
Pokémon Go has shown us that this technology is not only for the ultra-savvy or hardcore gamers, anyone with enough interest can easily utilize this technology in a variety of ways. It has managed to capture a wider and more diverse audience than any game before it; and in doing so has proven that people are more than willing to adopt AR given the right concept and execution. The next step for AR and VR technology is to piggyback off the success of Pokémon Go and keep people interested in AR and VR so that the potential for these technologies can be fully realized.
Below is the full infographic by Touchstone Research:
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