Pokemon Go Is Still Going, With New Content and Big Brand Partnerships

Niantic's CEO says he's been careful about integrating advertisers

It took less than eight weeks last summer for Pokemon Go to attract 500 million users (called “trainers,” in the game’s parlance), representing a scale that Facebook took six years to achieve. Despite such astonishing growth, many people wondered if the frenzy was simply a digital fad for the ages. But then researcher Sensor Network estimated this month that the augmented-reality game had already made $1 billion—in its first seven months. Some fad. Now the blogosphere is abuzz about 80 new monsters in Pokemon Go’s second version, which went live last week.

“Players in the Philippines, Germany, Korea, Japan and the United States are connected online and playing the game together,” explains John Hanke, CEO of Niantic

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This story first appeared in the Feb. 20, 2017, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.