It seems that the summer has brought new life to Pokémon Go. According to Superdata, Pokémon Go has reached its highest number of concurrent players since 2016. There are currently 147 million active users playing the mobile augmented reality game. Superdata also revealed that the game made $104 million in May of 2018. This makes it the 4th highest grossing app and displays a 174% increase in revenue in the last year.
Many factors can be contributing to the games newfound popularity. Superdata cites the changing of the seasons as the key factor for why the game has come back to life. Since the game is predominantly about walking around and catching pocket monsters, the warmer weather has lent itself well to getting players up and going. We saw a similar surge in players last summer around the Gym rework and Raid updates.
Another possibility is the announcement of Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee. These upcoming titles both have Pokémon Go integration. With the announcement of these games back in May many players may have picked the game back up to prepare for the titles. A lot of the key features from the Go games seem to be carrying over, including the way you catch Pokémon. Pokémon Go players will be able to transfer their Pokémon into the Switch titles. Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee will only allow the first 150 Pokémon in the Pokedex to be transferred over.
Furthermore, Pokémon Go added the long awaited trading feature to the game in June. Trading was a feature teased in the original Pokémon Go trailer and is something that fans have been asking for. With the addition of trading, players are now able to add friends and send gifts from anywhere in the world as well as trade Pokémon in close proximity to each other.