Four years after its release, Pokémon GO still has a devoted following. It remains the leader in location-based gaming, with players from around the world participating in its events. There are a lot of people still playing the game, for a lot of different reasons.

Pokémon GO was popular from its release on July 6, 2016. The free-to-play mobile game allows players to catch, battle, and train Pokémon using augmented reality. The game was downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide by the end of its first year. Pokémon GO operates on a "freemium" business model of micro transactions, which accounts for the $905 million in player spending for 2019.

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According to one source, Pokémon GO made over $3.6 billion globally in player spending over the past four years. It doesn't show signs of slowing down, as the first half of 2020 saw Pokémon GO generate $445.3 million, meaning it may match or exceed 2019's record-breaking spending. The majority of Pokémon GO users are in the United States, and the game has 576.7 million unique downloads to date worldwide.

Pokemon GO Changes In-Game Currency

So what are all of these people doing? It turns out — a lot. Pierre Sanchez, a software developer from Atlanta, told Screen Rant he has been playing every day since a week after launch four years ago. He meets up with other adults for raids all over town, takes long walks to nearby parks to catch any of the 600 available Pokémon, battles in gyms, fights the nefarious Team Rocket, and participates in the days or months that have a theme or event in-game.

So what makes players come back year after year, day after day to Pokémon Go? According to Sanchez, it's the distraction factor. "I used to play it to pass the time on my way to and from work," he said. "Now with COVID I really, really need something to do since work is all there is. " For many fans of the long-running Pokémon franchise, the game is just plain fun, and helps players find a community and get good exercise to boot.

The game has also been good at adapting. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns which have taken place all across the world, Pokémon GO made changes to its systems in order to make it easier for players to stay in their homes and catch PokémonNiantic, the developer behind the game, changed gym locations, allowed remote raid passes, and implemented daily automated quests, all in an effort to make sure their user base could get their daily Pokémon fix. As parts of the world come out of lock down, Pokémon GO could see a massive revenue jump as the game continues to be a success.

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