‘Pokémon Go’ sells to Saudi-backed Scopely in $3.5-billion deal

Scopely, a Culver City-based mobile game developer and publisher, will acquire the games portfolio of developer Niantic, including “Pokémon Go,” “Pikmin Bloom” and “Monster Hunter Now,” in a deal valued at $3.5 billion, the companies said Wednesday.

Niantic’s games generated $1 billion in revenue in 2024, and “Pokémon Go” has remained a top 10 mobile game since its launch in 2016, according to Scopely.

Players — also called trainers, who capture and battle monsters by walking around in the real world with a digital overlay, called augmented reality — have logged 30 billion miles in the app. The game, a sensation when it debuted, counts 20 million weekly active players.

Last month, over 253,000 people in Los Angeles and Orange counties attended a virtual “Pokémon Go” event, nearly 10 years after its release.

Scopely is a subsidiary of Savvy Games Group, a gaming company built by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Scopely was purchased in 2023 for $4.9 billion.

Saudi Arabia, using the fund, said it hoped to break into the video game industry by investing $38 billion by 2030, Bloomberg reported.

People playing mobile games spent $82 billion on in-app purchases globally in 2024, according to a report from Sensor Tower, an increase of 4% from 2023. Although fewer people are downloading gaming apps, the report said, they’re spending more time and money on them.

“We look forward to further accelerating the team’s creativity through our partnership,” Scopely chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien said in a statement. “Few games in the world have delivered the scale and longevity of ‘Pokémon GO.’”

The development team working on “Pokémon Go,” led by Ed Wu, is staying together under Scopely, according to a Wednesday blog post. Wu said the new ownership would be a positive step for the game, which he called his “life’s work.”

Other games acquired by Scopely include “Campfire” and “Wayfarer.” Scopely already has “Monopoly Go,” “Marvel Strike Force” and others in its portfolio.

“Niantic games have always been a bridge to connect people and inspire exploration, and I am confident they will continue to do both as part of Scopely,” John Hanke, founder and chief executive of Niantic, said in the Wednesday release.

San Francisco-based Niantic will retain its technology and spin it into a new company called Niantic Spatial Inc., according to a release on its website, which will help machines learn to interact with the real world using artificial intelligence. The company will keep its other games that use the augmented reality tech, “Ingress Prime” and “Peridot.”