Niantic's Pokemon GO celebrated its seventh anniversary in July 2023, and Data.ai has analysed the game’s performance since its release.

The game has been downloaded over 678 million times globally, making it the 18th most downloaded mobile game of all time across Google Play and iOS. Pokemon Go remains successful worldwide, and regularly remains in the top 20 monthly active user (MAU) charts worldwide, currently standing at number 16.

The game has been a particular success in the USA, which accounted for 164 million downloads - almost a quarter of what the game has received - making Pokemon Go the fourth most downloaded mobile game in US history. Only three titles - Subway Surfers, Candy Crush Saga, and Roblox - have been downloaded more times in the country, and the game has remained in third place in terms of MAU since 2019.

The game has also been a strong success in the UK with 19 million downloads, making it the country’s 11th most downloaded title of all time. The game has been a fixture in the top ten games by MAU since release and has only grown more popular since the pandemic, sitting in the third place spot since 2022.

Despite this, users worldwide have been spending less time in-game in recent years, at least on Android. Worldwide, users spent an average of 13 hours and 30 minutes every month playing Pokemon Go in 2019, and this time decreased 52% to six hours and 27 minutes in H1 2023.

Gotta catch ‘em all

This decline was echoed in specific territories. In the UK, average monthly playtime decreased 37% from eight hours and 31 minutes in 2019 to 5 hours and 20 minutes in H1 2023, while in the USA it fell 41% from eight hours and 55 minutes to five hours and 17 minutes over the same period.

Data.ai attributes this decline, in part, to the shift in preferences during pandemic, with simulation games such as Roblox getting the bulk of user attention. Despite this, engagement remains strong, being the number four game by average playtime among the top ten games by MAU in the first half of 2023.

The game’s success in the UK saw the Pokemon GO Fest event come to the country for the first time this past weekend, taking place in London.

"Over 10 million Pokemon were caught by nearly 50,000 Trainers who came together at Brockwell Park this weekend at Pokemon GO Fest London," said Pokemon Go director of regional marketing for EMEA Philip Marz. "It was a hugely successful event and demonstrates the growing appetite for real life gaming events and the continued health of the game. With GO Fest events completed in Osaka and London, it's now the turn of New York to finish the series in style in a couple of weeks time."

We listed Niantic as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022. We’ll be uploading our list for 2023 at Gamescom on August 22.