Pokémon Go developer Niantic to sell gaming division to Saudi-owned Scopely for $3.5 billion

What just happened? Niantic, the company that enjoyed global success with Pokémon Go in 2016, is selling its gaming division to Scopely for $3.5 billion. In addition to Pokémon Go, the deal will see Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom become the property of the Saudi Arabia-owned mobile developer.

Scopely is also acquiring Niantic's internal development teams and companion apps for Pokémon Go – Campfire and Wayfarer. Peridot and Ingress, which also use the Wayfarer mapping app, will continue to be owned and developed by Niantic Spatial, its geospatial AI business that is being spun off into a new firm.

Pokémon Go took the world by storm when it launched almost a decade ago. It set a new record for the number of downloads in its first week, with people spending more time on the app than Facebook. There were more than 500 million players in its first year, it had hit a billion downloads by 2019, and at one point was generating $1 billion per year in revenue.

There were also stories of criminals using Pokémon Go to lure and rob people at gunpoint, reports of users vandalizing neighborhoods and beaches, the disastrous Pokémon Go Fest 2017, and an estimated $2 billion to $7.3 billion in vehicle damage – along with two deaths – linked to the game during its first 148 days.

Pokémon Go's popularity has waned since its heyday. The AR title was hit especially hard during the 2020 lockdowns that kept most of the world stuck indoors. However, Niantic says its gaming division still has more than 30 million monthly active players, and had more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024.

Niantic Labs failed to recapture anywhere near the level of success enjoyed by Pokémon Go with its subsequent games. There have been numerous canceled projects, and the company has laid off hundreds of employees since 2020. One of the biggest casualties was Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a Pokémon Go clone that shut down in 2022, having launched just two and a half years earlier.

Saudi Arabia has been trying to break into the games industry in recent years – the country has ambitions to become the "ultimate global hub" for gaming. US-based Scopely is owned by Savvy Games, which is backed by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund. The Saudi Public Investment Fund has also been used to acquire stakes in Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, and EA.

Scopely is known for its excessive monetization practices in games such as Stumble Guys, Star Trek Fleet Command, and Marvel Strike Force, which are often criticized as being pay-to-win. Some Pokémon Go players have threatened to stop playing the game if Scopely buys Niantic over fears the same monetization practices are introduced to the AR title.