Pokemon Go is already more popular than Tinder

The app's popularity has sent shares in Nintendo, soaring by more than 40 percent
News Desk | July 12, 2016

The augmented reality mobile game 'Pokemon Go' by Nintendo is shown on a smartphone screen in this photo illustration taken in Palm Springs, California U.S. July 11, 2016. PHOTO: Reuters

Last week Nintendo and Niantic finally released Pokémon Go, one of the all-time most anticipated games for smartphones. It hasn’t taken long for Pokémon Go to take the world by storm. The augmented reality-based game has proved successful in bringing players an engaging experience as a Pokémon trainer, in a way that wasn’t possible in previous Pokémon games on the Nintendo systems. Pokémon go gives older users a chance to relive their childhood and once again experience that thrill of throwing a Pokeball and watching anxiously until the light on it turns white, signifying that the Pokémon has been caught.

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Pokémon Go quite literally brings the Pokémon franchise to life. The game is based around the gps and camera functions of the user’s phone, with nearest landmarks becoming points of interests called Pokestops. Although, officially the app is only out in Australia, New Zealand and the US, fans all over the world have found ways to download and play on both Android and iOS.

Although there were big expectations from this app, no one could have predicted the response it received within the first week. According to data from SimilarWeb, Pokémon Go has already been installed on more Android smartphones in the US than dating app Tinder, which itself is a hugely successful app. According to the report 5.4% of all android phones in the US have Pokémon Go as compared to 2% for Tinder.


Another study shows how Pokémon Go is in fact catching up to Twitter, in terms of number of hours used in a day. As a result, Nintendo’s stock rose by 23 percent in just one day, the biggest rise since 1980.

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The Success of Pokémon go could have major implications in the future of smartphone gaming. Creating such a specialized game for a smartphone is a model gaming giants Sony and Microsoft will also be looking at. In the near future, we may in fact see smartphones specially designed for their gaming capabilities. Furthermore, Pokémon Go can be used as a Launchpad by Nintendo to bring more of their trademark game franchises to smartphones around the world. Soon we may have Zelda and Mario along with Pikachu on our phones.

This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

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