Pokémon GO was built and run by another company, and it still made The Pokémon Company a different size of business. In the year it launched, the Tokyo company’s net profit went from ¥0.6bn to ¥15.9bn, 25.7× what it had been. All of that came from a licence that, on our estimate, brought in 13–22% of what players spent. When the next big phone game came, eight years later, The Pokémon Company sold it itself, and 43–49% of what TCG Pocket’s players spend is left to it after the app stores and the developer are paid.
Profit rose 25.7 times in the year the game launched
The other explanations do not fit. The company absorbed a small sister firm, but the merger took effect on 1 March 2017, the first day of the following year. New main-series games had not moved it far. The two launch years before GO left profit at ¥1.2bn and ¥2.0bn. And Nintendo told the market at launch that The Pokémon Company, as holder of the rights, would receive a licence fee and a payment for helping to develop and run the game. The balance sheet agrees. Current liabilities rose with the profit and fell back a year later, as a tax bill does when it is accrued and then paid, and licence income is taxed in full where a dividend from a subsidiary would not be.
For Nintendo the effect was larger still. Its share of affiliates’ profit supplied 40% of its ordinary profit that year (see Nintendo).
The Tokyo company’s profit jumped from ¥0.6bn to ¥15.9bn in the year Pokémon GO launched
Net profit and year-end current liabilities of the Tokyo company, ¥ billion, years to February 2016–2019.
- Tokyo company net profit
- Current liabilities at year end
Show the numbers
| Year to February | Tokyo company net profit, ¥bn | Current liabilities at year end, ¥bn | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | |||
| 2017 | |||
| 2018 | |||
| 2019 |
Tokyo company net profit. The Tokyo company on its own, from the gazette notices: 25.7 times the year before in the year to February 2017. GO launched in July 2016, inside that year; this shows timing, not cause.
Current liabilities at year end. Same gazette notices, balance sheet at the end of February. They jump with the GO-year profit and fall back the next year, the shape of a tax bill accrued and then paid.
The licence paid 13 to 22 yen of every 100 that players spent
Pokémon GO added an estimated ¥15.5–22.2bn to the Tokyo company’s pretax profit in its first year, against player spending that app-analytics firms put at $0.95–1.10bn. The link held afterwards. Spending fell to $0.5–0.6bn the next year and profit fell to ¥8.8bn; spending recovered to $0.74–0.84bn and profit to ¥13.4bn. In each of the three years the company earned ¥15–18bn of net profit for every billion dollars spent in the game.
A licence has almost no costs, so that share is close to what the company kept. As seller of TCG Pocket it is left with roughly two to four times as much of each yen, and out of that it must still pay for marketing and for running the app (the app’s later decline is on Mobile). Fig. 2 puts the two shares on one scale.
As licensor of Pokémon GO the company kept 13–22 yen of every 100 spent; as seller of TCG Pocket, 43–49
Share of players’ spending that reaches The Pokémon Company, yen per ¥100. Both are our estimates. Pokémon GO: income as it showed in profit. TCG Pocket: after store fees and the developer’s share, before the company’s own costs.
- Pokémon GO: licence income
- TCG Pocket: left after store fees and the developer’s share
Show the numbers
| App | Pokémon GO: licence income, per ¥100 spent | TCG Pocket: left after store fees and the developer’s share, per ¥100 spent | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon GO, licensed (2016–17) | (13–22) | – | |
| TCG Pocket, sold in its own name (2025–26) | – | (43–49) |
Pokémon GO: licence income. Estimate. The profit Pokémon GO added to the Tokyo company before tax in the year to February 2017, as a share of what app-analytics firms say players spent in the same months. A licence has almost no costs, so this is close to what the company kept.
TCG Pocket: left after store fees and the developer’s share. Estimate, year to February 2026. What remains of players’ spending after the app stores’ fee and DeNA’s share. The company’s own marketing and running costs still come out of it.
One quarter is larger than the game can explain
Nintendo booked ¥12.0bn as its share of affiliates’ profit in July to September 2016. At its 32% holding, that implies ¥37.5bn of profit at The Pokémon Company in three months, more than twice what the Tokyo company earned in the whole year. On the shares we test, Pokémon GO does not supply it. At 21–30% of that quarter’s spending the game would have paid ¥12.5–19.5bn, and at two-fifths, the highest share we test, ¥26bn. Asked about the jump, Nintendo said it was Pokémon-related income, GO included, and that it was not revenue taken all at once at launch.
The gap survives in the full year. Nintendo booked ¥20.3bn, while the profit its own note reports for its affiliates supports ¥13.2–13.9bn.
Pokémon GO’s first summer falls short of the ¥37.5bn of profit Nintendo’s accounts imply
July to September 2016, ¥ billion. Estimated income from Pokémon GO at two assumed shares of player spending, against the profit implied by what Nintendo booked.
- Estimated income from Pokémon GO, 21–30% of spending
- Estimated income from Pokémon GO, 40% of spending
- The Pokémon Company’s profit for the quarter, as Nintendo’s accounts imply it
Show the numbers
| July to September 2016 | Estimated income from Pokémon GO, 21–30% of spending, ¥bn | Estimated income from Pokémon GO, 40% of spending, ¥bn | The Pokémon Company’s profit for the quarter, as Nintendo’s accounts imply it, ¥bn | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon GO income at 21–30% of spending | (12.5–19.5) | – | – | |
| Pokémon GO income at 40% of spending | – | – | ||
| Profit implied by Nintendo’s accounts | – | – |
Estimated income from Pokémon GO, 21–30% of spending. Estimates: what app-analytics firms say players spent in July to September 2016, at an assumed ¥103 to the dollar, times an assumed share for The Pokémon Company.
Estimated income from Pokémon GO, 40% of spending. The highest share we test.
The Pokémon Company’s profit for the quarter, as Nintendo’s accounts imply it. Nintendo booked ¥12.0bn as its share of affiliates’ profit in July to September 2016. At its 32% holding that is ¥37.5bn for the whole company.
The first payout to owners followed
The year after, the company paid its owners ¥3.0bn, confirmed as a cash dividend by a matching rise in its legal reserve. That was 18.8% of the GO year’s profit, and the rest stayed in the company. It has paid out once since, and the full record is on The Pokémon Company.