Pokémon Go Hits Decade Mark as Scopely Integrates $3.5bn Niantic Buy
Pokémon Go celebrates its tenth anniversary with over a billion downloads, testing whether Scopely's $3.5 billion acquisition of developer Niantic can sustain the mobile hit's lucrative live-events model.
Pokémon Go is marking its tenth anniversary, boasting more than a billion total downloads and millions of daily active users a decade after its record-breaking launch. The augmented reality mobile app, which overlays digital creatures onto real-world camera views, celebrated the milestone with a recent gathering of hundreds of players in New York's Times Square.
The anniversary arrives just months after a significant corporate shakeup. In 2025, Scopely—the game's publisher and a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund—acquired Pokémon Go developer Niantic for $3.5 billion. The deal transferred ownership of one of mobile gaming's most enduring franchises to a sovereign wealth fund-backed entity.
For investors, the game's value lies partly in its ability to drive physical footfall and live-event monetisation. "My hope is that we prove to players over time that this is definitively a good thing for the game and the community," said Michael Steranka, Scopely's vice president of product. Since the first Go Fest in 2017, the franchise has hosted major in-person gatherings in more than 60 countries, averaging over 400,000 attendees annually.
However, the location-based model carries distinct operational risks. Steranka noted that the initial strict lockdowns "impacted Pokémon Go probably more than any other game out there," though the title recovered as restrictions eased. Historically, the app has also struggled with its own scale, with Matthew Reynolds, editor of Pokémon news website One More Catch, noting that "servers buckled under the strain" and connectivity problems were "rife for some time."
Looking ahead, Scopely intends to lean into the game's social infrastructure rather than just its technology. The company estimates players have explored over 100 billion kilometres while playing.
"Pokémon Go will always start with community - we think we're only scratching the surface here," Steranka said. "It meets people where they are, at whatever phase of life they're in."
