Gaming
Gaming
The mindblowing numbers behind Pokémon GO
The stats that prove Niantic’s augmented reality game really has taken over the world.
You’ll need to catch lots and lots of Magikarp
© The Pokémon Company/Red Bull
Pokémon GO is a phenomenon, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. No mobile game, from Angry Birds to Monument Valley, has ever reached this level of hype; you quite literally can’t walk down a street without spotting somebody hunting Rattatas. In fact, few games of any sort, on any platform, have made this sort of impact.
Much of that is down to Pokémon GO’s clever straddling of game world and reality; even if you’d rather get sat on by a Snorlax than walk around, phone in hand, looking for imaginary beasties, this is not a game you can ignore. But how big has Pokémon GO become, truly? Here are a few statistics to give you some perspective.
$23 billion
How much Nintendo’s value soared by in the weeks after the release of Pokémon GO, an increase of 120 percent as demand for stock reached the same levels of hype as the game itself. This marks the single biggest jump in the company’s fortunes since the 1980s, and for a moment, even helped Nintendo surpass rival Sony in value, an astonishing feat given the sales share of its Wii U console versus the mighty PlayStation 4. Not one to let people get carried away, Nintendo was quick to point out that it doesn’t actually make Pokémon GO on an earnings call – it owns a minority stake in The Pokémon Company, which partnered with developer Niantic, to make the game – which caused a subsequent slump of around $6.4 billion earlier this week, its single biggest one day decline since 1990. Still, that leaves the Japanese gaming giant in a much better place than it started July in, and makes Pokémon GO one of the most valuable games of all time.
21,000,000
The number of daily active users of Pokémon GO in the US, as estimated by SurveyMonkey. If accurate, this makes it the most popular mobile game in US history, but it’s not just rival games that GO has eclipsed. By some estimates, GO is overtaking the world’s biggest social networks too: on Android, at least, the game is now bigger than Twitter. And just to be clear: this is just the USA. Pokémon GO is also available in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and across Europe and Asia. The total number of players is unknown, but with global Android downloads in the region of 50 - 100 million according to Google’s Play Store, the number could easily be over 200 million, when iPhone players are taken into account. For some perspective, the last Pokémon games on 3DS, X and Y, sold 12 million between them.
20,000,000
The total amount of experience points (XP) required to hit the level cap in Pokémon GO, at level 40. No, that’s not a typo; the amount of XP required to hit each new level after around 20 begins to increase almost exponentially, meaning you’ll either have to be very patient or live on a spawn spot in order to progress. Just to put things in perspective, 20 million XP is the equivalent of visiting 400,000 Pokéstops, or capturing 200,000 Pidgeys. Of course, even if you’re only at level 15 it probably feels like you’ve caught that many winged rats already, so brace yourself: you’ve still got a long way to go. Or, you know, buy some Lucky Eggs. Maybe do that.
A believeable Level 40 mockup?
© Niantic, Inc/The Pokémon Company/Red Bull
4,144
The highest number of CP (combat points) a Pokémon can attain, according to data obtained by Gamespress. Of course, said Pokémon is the legendary Mewtwo, and this sulking, psychic cat is not in the game yet – and neither are Mew, Zapdos, Articuno or Moltres – so the highest CP any currently available Pokémon can reach is 3,500CP, which is still enough to steamroll over any six opponents. To achieve this, however, you’ll need to firstly find and capture a Dragonite (good luck), get enough Dratini candy and stardust to max out its potential, and then hit the level cap at 40. Which nobody has managed yet. Still, it puts that 1,900CP Snorlax squatting on your local gym to shame, doesn’t it?
26 percent
The increase in revenue one cafe has seen by embracing Pokémon GO. Maxwell’s Bar and Grill in Covent Garden, London, has seen takings shoot up by more than a quarter since its proprietors noticed the location was a popular Pokéstop. Management began putting its own lures, dozens per day, and even serving up Pokémon themed drinks and snacks. Similar rises have been reported in the US by a cafe in Atlanta, while other small business meanwhile have claimed to see sales surges of as high as 75 percent in New York. Pokémon GO, it seems, rather than a nuisance, is good for business.
142
The most types of Pokémon caught by one player so far. American Reddit user ftb_hodor has managed to fill out his Pokédex with every single monster roaming North America currently (150 minus the legendary Pokémon, plus Farfetch’d and Mr Mime, which are region locked to other continents, and the inexplicably absent amorphous blob Ditto, which Niantic may have forgotten about because it’s so utterly underwhelming). During the process, he walked 95 miles with the app open on his phone, hatched 303 eggs and caught 4,269 wild Pokémon to complete his collection. Now all he needs is a return ticket to Japan via London to truly catch’em all, though we’re guessing he’s spent all his disposable income on incubators at this point.
9,000
The largest number of GO players convening at one meet up so far. An estimated 9,000 hunters congregated at various points across San Francisco last Wednesday in order to catch Pokémon as well as other players in a social environment. Thankfully, Niantic’s frequent server problems managed to sort themselves out just minutes before the scheduled start time, as what ended up being a huge, fun-spirited gathering could very easily have turned into a riot (no doubt instigated by Team Instinct. You can’t trust those guys).
These instant flash mobs aren’t just restricted to Niantic’s home city however; as far away as Sydney, Australia, meet ups of upwards of 2,000 people have been taking place, making any IRL events based around Niantic’s previous game, Ingress, look like Weedles by comparison.
400
The obscene number of candies needed to evolve a Magikarp into a Gyarados. You’ll need 101 of these useless, gawping koi (Four candy for each captured and transferred, plus one to actually morph) to nab your own giant dragon fish thing. That seems a tad extreme, but it’s a fitting translation of Magikarp’s absurdly high experience requirements in the regular game series, and well worth pursuing given it evolves with a 10-11x CP multiplier. That many players at gyms already seem to have achieved this Herculean task only goes to show how addictive GO has proven. Of course, you could try and catch a Gyarados in the wild, as Justin Bieber was spotted attempting to do at 3am in New York’s Central Park last week, but unless you have your own entourage to play for you, we’d say the chances of one materialising near you are slim. Better get fishing.
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