Pokémon GO: How Many Players and Downloads in 2026?

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Pokemon GO has been downloaded more than 600 million times since its launch in July 2016. The mobile game from Niantic and The Pokémon Company remains one of the biggest hits in the history of video games, with tens of millions of active players every month.

Do you want to Join a team before you get started ? Here are all the key figures to help you understand the scale of the phenomenon.

Illustrative image of Pokémon GO.
Illustrative image of Pokémon GO. ©Antonin for Alucare.fr

Number of downloads from 2016 to 2024

Downloads have followed a dramatic trajectory since 2016, peaking at launch and then gradually declining—though never catastrophically. Here are the key figures on android and iOS, year by year.

In 2016

Launched on July 6, 2016, Pokémon GO was an instant hit. The app is available on android and iOS, and the idea of catching Pokémon in the real world captivated millions of players in just a few days. It was a first-of-its-kind augmented reality experience for the general public.

On the first three months However, the app has been downloaded 220 million times. For the second half of 2016 as a whole, this figure exceeds 250 million downloads, an all-time record for a mobile game.

In 2020

Four years after its launch, Pokémon GO is still recording 58 million downloads over the course of the year. A very good result, driven by regular events and new features added by Niantic.

In 2023

The app has surpassed the 39 million downloads worldwide. The trainer community remains very active, especially during raids and the Pokémon GO Fest.

In 2024

The game goes beyond the 36 million downloads over the course of the year, peaking at 3.48 million in the month of December alone. Annual downloads have been declining gradually since their peak in 2016, but the player base remains massive after nearly a decade.

In 2025

According to estimates by AppMagic, Pokémon GO recorded approximately 29.7 million downloads in 2025, bringing the cumulative total (mobile tracking only) to approximately 709.5 million downloads since its launch.

Note: Niantic had already announced in 2019 that it had reached the symbolic milestone of one billion downloads across all platforms, a figure that includes sources that mobile analytics firms do not always measure in the same way. The two figures (700 million and over 1 billion) therefore coexist depending on the counting method used.

Pokémon GO: Changes in the Number of Players

Niantic does not release official figures on the number of active players. To estimate the size of the community, we therefore rely on third-party sources such as Business of Apps Where Active Player. These figures are orders of magnitude, not absolute truths.

In 2016

According to estimates from Business of Apps, Pokémon GO reached a peak of 232 million active players in its very first year. To date, this is the best performance the game has ever recorded, driven by a completely unexpected global success.

In 2023

According Active Player, the statistics for November 2023 give a good idea of the audience that remains:

  • Monthly active players: 82 945 023
  • Maximum number of players per day: 5 529 668
  • Online players over a one-hour period: 650 393

In 2024

Toward the end of 2024, estimates put the number of active players at around 80 million per month. Daily raids and battles continue to keep trainers around the world coming back for more.

Pokémon GO It thus remains one of the most popular mobile games in the world, several years after its launch. The real question remains: Will the game ever regain the record-breaking player base it had in 2016?

In 2025–2026

Monthly data tracked between February 2025 and January 2026 confirm a a consistently large audience, on a scale comparable to that at the end of 2024.

The game remains one of the most popular mobile games in the world nearly ten years after its launch, even though it has never regained the record-breaking player base it had in the summer of 2016.

Pokémon GO Profitability Statistics

The game Pokémon GO.
The game Pokémon GO. ©Antonin for Alucare.fr

Since 2016, Pokémon GO is a cash cow for Niantic and The Pokémon Company. The figures below are estimates based on third-party sources, as official data remains confidential.

In 2019

The game generates $894 million in gross revenue. It is well ahead of Dragon Quest Walk ($201 million) and Let’s Hunt Monsters ($26 million), earning it the title of the world's most profitable geolocation game.

In 2020

The game is climbing to third place among the world's most profitable mobile games, with 757 million dollars. Only Arena of Valor (947 million) and PUBG (1.1 billion) are doing better.

In the United States, it also retains its third place with $216 million, behind Candy Crush (251 million) and Roblox (314 million).

In 2023

Revenue amounts to 584.31 million dollars worldwide, mainly thanks to the integrated purchasing. the Pokémon GO Fest also helps boost these results every year.

In 2024

Revenue totaled 544.68 million worldwide. The trend shows a slight year-over-year decline, but these figures remain substantial for a video game that has been around for nearly a decade.

In 2025

Estimates for 2025 vary by firm, ranging from approximately $300 million and $525 million in revenue fluctuations over the course of the year. The range illustrates how difficult it is to arrive at a consensus figure, but all sources agree that there is a downward trend compared to the 2021 peak.

Over the course of his career, the game is said to have generated more than $6.3 billion in cumulative revenue (in-app purchases only, excluding in-store sales), a figure that directly justified its valuation at the time of the acquisition by Scopely.

Latest Records in Pokémon GO

Beyond the overall statistics, a few individual achievements reflect the community's passion for the game. Here are three particularly notable ones.

In 2021: 11,400 Pokémon caught in a single day

the March 6, 2021, during Community Day, the Japanese player Tarotirota sets an impressive record by capturing 11,400 Pokémon in a single day. Its speed reaches 8 Pokémon per minute, while browsing 130 kilometers by bike.

To get around the storage limit, he would transfer his captures to the professor Willow or sent them to Pokémon HOME. Result: 139 Pokémon Shiny achieved on the same day.

In 2023: Six Shiny Marcacrins in 60 seconds

the April 29, 2023, during the Classic Community Day dedicated to Marcacrin, the player Southern_Dress4591 achieves a rare feat. He captures six Shiny Pokémon in just one minute, between 4:57 p.m. and 4:58 p.m.

His post on Reddit shocked the community. On that day, the probability of getting a Shiny was around 1 of 15. Some trainers do, however, suggest a strategy: wait until the end of the event to maximize your chances of catching Shiny Pokémon.

The first player to reach level 50

The player FleeceKing was one of the first in the world to reach the level 50, the game's highest level. His achievement is officially recorded in the Guinness World Records 2024, the issue dedicated to video games.

Do you want to increase your chances of catching rare Pokémon, too? Check out the latest Pokémon GO promo codes to give you a little help.

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Pokemon GO

Released on : July 6, 2016

Developed by : Niantic

Edited by : Niantic

Available on : Android, iOS

Genres : RPG, Multiplayer