We’re 60 days post launch and Pokemon Go is still smashing worldwide records like the Kool-Aid Man bursting through walls. So far, Pokemon Go: ♦ Has had the more downloads in its the first week than any app in history; ♦ Reached 50 million downloads on Play in record time; ♦ Has now surpassed 500 million downloads worldwide on the App Store alone – in 60 days, no less; ♦ Users have walked an astounding 2.85 BILLION MILES (Hows that for video games giving your exercise?) ♦ Is raking in a cool $10 million in revenue every day; Apple just released that the App Store just had a 106% growth in downloads (140 billion downloads total). Guess what apps analysts believe is the single greatest driver in this growth: yep, Pokemon Go. Plus, Apple just announced that the game app is coming to the Apple Watch, sure to drive even more downloads. And the news keeps rolling in: App Annie, the legendary app market analyst company, just announced that Pokemon Go has become the first game app in history to reach the $500 million mark in 60 days. To put this in perspective, the next fastest was Clash of Clans; it took them 200 days to reach the same mark. If Pokemon Go continues to at its current rate, it will pass $1 billion in revenue by the end of 2016. That’s about 5 months after its launch. More importantly, it seems to have staying power, as App Annie reports. One of the best KPIs market analysts like SDI’s study is user retention rates; they give us a good indication of how engaged a user is. And where does Pokemon Go stand on this KPI? At the number two slot, right behind Words with Friends – an industry legend in terms of its user engagement levels. So suffice to say, Pokemon Go is doing astoundingly well. They’re even coming up with clever ways to drive in-app purchases, including partnerships with other businesses. For instance, McDonald’s Japan and another Japanese mobile platform have turned their physical locations into Pokemon “Gyms.” This drives sales for the retailers and engagement for the app. Plus it opens the way to drive in-app purchases for deals to the retail location (and vice versa) Pretty clever right? Contact SDI for more clever app revenue generation ideas like this one. Game Apps for the iPhone With Pokemon Go’s extension to the Apple Watch, plus its huge impact on the App Store’s recent growth, there’s bound to be a bigger and better support network for iOS mobile games. Already, there are some big names getting involved solely on the iOS platform. This includes but is not limited to the announcement from Nintendo that Mario will soon be going mobile with the app Super Mario Run. Clearly, Pokemon Go has convinced Nintendo that mobile gaming apps are a legitimate and money making avenue for the industry. In fact, Nintendo’s stocks on the US market grew a breathtaking 29%, with a corresponding 18% raise on the Japanese market. But making a successful app is about more than excellent development. Part of the reason that Super Mario Run – to be released in December – is causing so much clamor is because of its star power, albeit nerd star power: several of the creators of the very first Super Mario Bros game are working on this, including Shigeru Miyamoto. Marketing for Mobile apps Star Power. It changes the name of the game. We aren’t talking about Mario and Starmen here; this is the power of celebrities to growth hack an app far faster than it would have been able to grow on its own. We recently talked about this in another post concerning Kim Kardashian’s multi-million dollar mobile game app – check it out to learn more about it. While Pokemon Go did not have a specific celebrity, it was able to capitalize upon a lingering love for the show and original GameBoy game that many millennials have – a type of star power in and of itself. By now you’re probably thinking, well that sounds all gravy, but how does the ordinary entrepreneur like me get a celebrity endorsement? Well, there’s good news: there are enterprise resources out there. Companies like Booking Agent Info offer resources to connect you with both celebrities and a celebrity’s agent. After all, this is a business like any other and celebrities have been endorsing products for a very, very long time. Most celebrities are just looking to put their name on a stellar product. And all you need to build a stellar product is a stellar app dev and marketing team on your side – like the one at SDI. Build Your Own App Like Pokemon Go Want to lay down the foundations for your own Mobile Game app empire? SDI can help build you the app to get it started, and we’ll devise a winning marketing strategy to get your app the downloads it needs. Give us a call at 408.805.0495/408.621.8481 – or click to contact us!