The gaming arm of Niantic was just sold to mobile gaming firm Scopely for $3.5 billion. This includes the transfer of ownership of Pokémon Go to Scopely.
Other titles that changed owners in this deal include Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now. These titles, along with several other apps, are now under the Scopely umbrella. These titles join existing Scopely games such as Star Trek Fleet Command, Marvel Strike Force, and Monopoly Go.
Pokémon Go hit the mobile scene in 2016. It quickly became the mobile game to get and rose to even greater revenue heights in 2020. In 2024, Pokémon Go alone pulled in over 100 million players. As part of today's purchase announcement, Scopely claims that Pokémon Go Fest pulled in more people than Coachella, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Tomorrowland combined.
The Niantic teams acquired by Scopely will continue to be led by Kei Kawai and Ed Wu.
Scopely really scored big on the data harvested by Niantic with this purchase. The user data and GPS data for hundreds of millions of people from all around the world is now theirs for $3.5 billion.
