Pokémon Go Fest 2021 earned £15m in two days

Pokémon Go Fest 2021 earned £15.4m ($21m) in two days, according to numbers from app store analytics firm Sensor Tower.

The Saturday of last weekend’s ticketed event was one of the most lucrative days for the game since its stratospheric launch in July 2016, though was just pipped by the one-day Kanto Tour event earlier this year. (Across the weekend, Go Fest was still the clear winner.)

Pokémon Go recently passed the $5bn lifetime player spending total, and in 2021 has notched up $731m so far – putting it on track for this year to be its most profitable yet.

Pokémon Go developer Niantic’s own post-event press release doesn’t go into the financial side of things, of course, but it is clear from the stats it has released that the event was a success.

Across the two day’s 16 hours of gameplay, Pokémon Go players caught 1.5 billion Pokémon, spun 900m PokéStops and walked 125m km.

1.5 billion over 16 hours equals 93,750,500 Pokémon per hour. That’s a lot of Pokémon Go players, or someone with a very good Pokémon Go Plus.

I found Pokémon Go Fest 2021 to be hugely enjoyable and likely the game’s best ticketed event to date, with some lovely storytelling flourishes. The game’s narrative will continue over the coming weeks with more disruption from the Mythical Pokémon Hoopa, before it likely becomes available to catch later this summer.