The days are growing colder in the game's largest markets, but that isn't putting Pokémon GO player spending on ice. In fact, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals that the location-based AR sensation grossed an estimated $80 million globally in November across the App Store and Google Play. This represents a 150 percent increase year-over-year, or 2.5x the $32 million what was spent in the game during November 2017.
These figures come as Niantic is on the verge of launching realtime player-versus-player gameplay in Pokémon GO, which has been far and away the most requested feature by its player base since the title originally debuted in July 2016. The new mechanics are expected to debut within the next two weeks and we anticipate their introduction will result in an unprecedented increase in player spending.
Back to the just-ended month, our data shows that players in Japan led spending in the title during November at approximately 37 percent of the total or about $29.6 million. Players in the United States contributed an estimated $25.6 million, or about 32 percent of all spending.
Year-over-year spending grew more considerably in the U.S. at approximately 232 percent (3.3x) more than the $7.7 million we estimate players here spent in the game last November. Japanese revenue grew about 139 percent (2.4x) over November 2017 when approximately $12.4 million was spent in the game there.