Pokémon Masters EX has solidified itself as The Pokémon Company’s second-biggest mobile game, behind Pokémon Go, surpassing $300 million in lifetime revenue.
While often overshadowed by Niantic’s AR behemoth Pokémon Go, Masters casts quite the shadow in its own right over the remainder of The Pokémon Company’s catalogue, having generated more consumer spending alone than the combined might of Café Remix, Pokémon Quest and even Tencent’s Pokémon Unite.
According to AppMagic data, Masters’ $300 million milestone has been reached in little over four years. The free-to-play gacha game was released in August 2019 in partnership between The Pokémon Company and DeNA and generated $75 million in its first year, proving successful… but not Pokémon Go successful.
Big spenders
The US comprises the largest share of Pokémon Masters’ 50 million downloads at 20%, almost double the installs from the second-biggest region and Pokémon’s home country, Japan, at only 12%. India ranks third with 11% of installs while Brazil and South Korea round out the top five at 5% and 4% respectively.
As for revenue, Japan contributes the largest share - unsurprising given the market’s willingness to spend on mobile and clear infatuation with RPGs. In fact, the Japanese playerbase - while only 12% of the total audience - is responsible for 51% of Pokémon Master’s revenue, having spent over $150 million in-game alone.
The US comes second with 25% of the game’s earnings, more in line with its share of the install base. Naturally the remaining 24% of revenues are spread across the rest of the world, with other paying markets contributing a much smaller share of the total $300 million. Even third-place spender Taiwan has only contributed $12 million to the game, or 4% of total earnings, showing a marked drop-off while Japanese and US wallets carry the weight of the game’s success.
Masters’ main selling point is its characters, predominantly pulled from the main series of console games and introduced via gacha mechanics. These characters come with one Pokémon each and target fans new and old, bringing in everyone from Game Boy protagonist Red to Scarlet and Violet’s Nemona. Over the years Ash and Pikachu from the anime have been introduced, Irida and Glaceon arrived from the experimental Switch title Legends: Arceus, and Hop came to celebrate Masters’ 3.5-year anniversary in 2023 with a modernised Zapdos.
