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Niantic, the software development company that brought you Pokemon Go, is now worth $3.65 billion.
Analysts at Citibank have reported that the wild success of Pokemon Go has turned Niantic into a unicorn. Released less than a month ago on July 6, Pokemon Go has topped app stores of all 30 countries it is available in.
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Niantic started off as an internal startup at Google and spun off into an independent entity after a massive restructuring at Google resulted in a parent company called Alphabet. Their previous games, Ingress, was also based on augmented reality but did not gain greater popularity. Pokemon Go, on the other hand, has helped bring in the big bucks because Pokemon is part of pop culture around the world.
According to Citibank’s calculations, Niantic is set to make 740 million in revenues this year. This valuation is five times Niantic’s projected annual revenue.
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While most companies tend to focus on their growth first, Pokemon Go’s success shows that you can grow fast and make money simultaneously. The game is so addictive that people are actually paying for the in-app purchases to enjoy little perks. This alone has led Niantic to make over $1 million each day in the US from iOS users.
Pokemon Go has been downloaded a whopping 75 million times with 50 million downloads on Google Play alone. With this feat, Pokemon Go has broken the previous record held by Color Switch and Slither.io who took 77 and 81 days respectively to pass the 50 million mark. Pokemon Go did that in less than 20 days.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, 6% of Niantic which according to Citibank is worth $217 million. Other investors include The Pokemon Company and Nintendo who partnered with Niantic to make the game. However, PokemonGo’s success will not have any effect on Nintendo’s finances as they did not contribute to actually making the game.
