Pokémon GO Isn't a Mobile Data Hog—and This Data Proves It

Since exploding onto the App Store and Google Play earlier this month, Pokémon GO has been the subject of countless news stories—and a few controversies. One of these even involves the United States Congress, who this week sent a formal letter to the game's developer, Niantic, asking why it uses so much mobile data, and why players aren't being warned about potential overages they might incur from using the app.

Is Pokémon GO really the data-devouring monster the U.S. government has accused it of being? That's what we wanted to find out using Sensor Tower data. The short answer is no—and in this post, we'll look at how it really stacks up against other popular apps in terms of mobile data use.

A Data-Hungry Beast? Hardly.

In order to get to the bottom of these accusations of Pokémon GO's data gluttony, we needed to look at Android mobile data usage for the game, along with several other top mobile apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp—with the recent hit game Clash Royale included to represent the games category.

What we found is that, while Pokémon GO is consuming an average of 5.2 megabytes per day of mobile data per user, that's actually quite a bit less than the most data-hungry app we analyzed, Facebook, which consumes an average of 19 MB per day of mobile data per user. Looking at this from a megabytes per hour perspective, Pokémon GO consumes about 16 MB of data per hour of use, while Facebook consumes roughly 52 MB. The chart below shows how all the apps we analyzed compare in terms of average daily data use, both mobile and Wi-Fi.

The photo- and video-centric natures of Facebook and Instagram clearly contribute to their hefty data demands, and heavy users will obviously consume more data. The same can be said about Pokémon GO—hardcore players could be putting in several hours a day away from Wi-Fi—but the average player isn't going to exceed the limits of even a modest data plan in a month.

That said, we wanted to know how much time playing Pokémon GO away from Wi-Fi would be required each day to use up certain amounts of mobile data, so that's what our next chart shows.

How Much Playtime Will Break Users' Data Banks?

We've already established that the average Pokémon GO player spends about 33 minutes each day in the app (a figure that hasn't decreased since launch). Based the data we analyzed for this post, that would amount to about 250 MB of monthly mobile data usage for an average user, if played entirely without Wi-Fi use. The chart below outlines the amount of time players would need to keep the app in use away from Wi-Fi each day to consume certain amounts of data every 30 days.

Even at just over two hours per day of active use, the app would only consume enough mobile data to account for one-third of a modest family data plan. Players who spend enough time in the app each day to rack up 10 GB of monthly usage should probably find a way to monetize their Pokémon hunting efforts.

Top Apps vs. 1 GB of Monthly Data

To create our final chart, we looked at how much time users would need to spend actively using the apps in our analysis each day to consume 1 GB of data per month. For Facebook users, the amount of time required isn't all that far off from the daily average of 22 minutes.

We wouldn't be surprised if hardcore Clash Royale players spend more than three hours per day actively engaged with the game, but then they're probably playing on Wi-Fi. That's one noteworthy way Pokémon GO stands out from the other apps: because of its location-based nature, the amount of all data used by its average player is not very different from the amount of mobile data.

As we no doubt see more location-aware games surface in the wake of Pokémon GO's unprecedented success, it will be intriguing to see how they compare in terms of data use—especially if they provide significant amounts of direct user interaction and rich media beyond what's on offer in Niantic's title.