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Pokémon Go Creator Is Now the Most Popular Game Publisher In the World

By
David Meyer
David Meyer
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By
David Meyer
David Meyer
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August 12, 2016, 5:01 AM ET
NETHERLANDS-POKEMON-GAME
Gamers play with the Pokemon Go application on their mobile phone, at the Grote Markt in Haarlem, on July 13, 2016. / AFP / ANP / Remko de Waal / Netherlands OUT (Photo credit should read REMKO DE WAAL/AFP/Getty Images)Photograph by Remko De Waal—AFP/Getty Images

Niantic, the company behind the hit game Pokémon Go, is now the most popular games developer in the world, according to SimilarWeb.

The market intelligence firm said Friday that the success of the augmented reality game had helped Niantic kick the reigning champion, Candy Crush maker King, off its perch.

Based on installations and use on Android devices, SimilarWeb concluded that Niantic last month became the top game app developer in 45 out of the 183 countries it surveyed, including pretty much all of North America, Europe and Australasia.

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In some of the countries where Pokémon Go dominated, the game hadn’t even been officially released in July.

King, which had been top in 60 countries, is now the most popular developer in just 39 countries around the world, including India, Egypt, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The news of Niantic’s newfound dominance is not surprising, as its game broke the record for the highest number of Apple app downloads in the first week of release—7.2 million downloads, compared with the 1.8 million Candy Crush Jelly Saga got in its first week.

Pokémon Goearned $200 million in its first month—seven times as much as Candy Crush Soda Saga earned in its first month of release, back in 2014.

For more on Pokémon Go watch our video.

Based on the sums paid for King ($5.9 billion, by Activision Blizzard) and Clash of Clans maker Supercell ($8.6 billion, by Tencent) this year, SimilarWeb theorized that Niantic may be worth “upwards of $10 billion.”

Niantic is a spin-out from Google (GOOG), which is still an investor in it, along with Nintendo.

The third place in the firm’s rankings is held by Outfit7, which makes the My Talking Tom cat games, followed by Kiloo (Subway Surfers and Smash Champs) and First Touch (Dream League Soccer).

According to SimilarWeb, a notable victim of the Pokémon Go craze was Color Switch maker Fortafy Games, who got knocked off the top spot in countries such as Mexico, Poland and Israel.

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By David Meyer
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