Pokemon Go has increased Japan’s Nintendo Co Ltd’s (7974.T) market share by a whopping $7.5 billion in merely two days after its release.
The game combines virtual reality with the classic Pokemon franchise. Players of Pokemon Go can roam about in their own localities and search for Pokemon characters. This combination of virtual and real worlds using augmented reality have won the hearts of the gamers.
Web analytics reports suggest that in the US, within two days of its release on July 8th, the game has been played by more than 5 percent of the total android smartphone users in the country.
Pokemon G has already recorded more installs than Tinder, the highly popular dating application. According to an analytic firm, the number people playing this game daily is on par with the number of daily active users of Twitter, the widespread social network app.
The users of Pokemon Go are spending around 43 minutes per day playing the game, which is more than the time average people use WhatsApp or Instagram every day.
The huge success of the game in the US rapidly escalated the shares of Nintendo to become the highest since November last year. Driven by the game’s acquisition of the top in Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) App Store in the US, the company gained 36 percent in the share market.
Till now, Pokemon Go has only launched in Australia, United States, and New Zealand. More success is expected when the game launches in other countries including Japan, one of the largest market for games.
Being a free app, Pokemon Go can’t enhance Nintendo much. On top of that, Nintendo is not the only investor of the game and neither its creator.
The game has been designed and developed jointly by Niantic, which spilt off from Google last year and the Pokemon Company. One-third of the Pokemon Company is owned by Nintendo and both of them have undisclosed shares in Niantic.
