‘Pokémon Go’ just broke another major iPhone App Store record

By Lulu Chang Published July 22, 2016

In news that will probably surprise no one, Pokémon Go has become the app with the highest number of downloads during its launch week on the Apple App Store. Since its debut on July 6, the wildly popular app has skyrocketed to the No. 1 spot on both the free and top-grossing charts, and is showing absolutely no signs of slowing. Because really, you’ve just gotta catch ’em all.

As The Loop reported, Apple confirmed Friday that “the game has set a new App Store record with more downloads in its first week than any other app in history.” These numbers are even more impressive when considering that Pokémon Go was rolled out gradually across the world, and has only just been released in Japan, the game’s nation of origin.

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First appearing in Australia, Pokémon Go is now available in nearly 30 countries, and there seems to be a truly universal appeal to the game. Nintendo has enjoyed a rising stock price thanks to the app’s success, and because you can make in-app purchases within the free game, there’s plenty of revenue being generated on behalf of both developers and Apple. In fact, 9to5Mac reports, Apple’s 30 percent revenue share in the game could be worth $3 billion in the next couple years.

Of course, the resounding success of the game hasn’t been entirely without its costs. The game has been blamed for a number of dangerous situations, including a car crash, the discovery of dead bodies, and more. There have also been complaints about the locations of some of these Pokémon, with representatives from both the Holocaust Museum in the District of Columbia and the 9/11 Memorial in New York City asking that game enthusiasts refrain from playing on those grounds.

All the same, the Pokémon craze is here in earnest, and according to Apple’s numbers, it looks like it’s here to stay.

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