Big news in the world of geolocation mobile gaming! Niantic is selling its gaming portfolio to Scopely games, more specifially Pokemon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now, alongside companion apps Campfire and Wayfarer. Niantic, who spun off into Niantic Spatial Inc., will continue to operate the AR games Ingress Prime and Peridot.

According to Scopely's blog, the deal was settled for 3.5 million USD. Aside from the IPs, all developers working on these games will retain their positions, at least for now. Scopely is no stranger to mobile development, with games such as Marvel Strike Force, Monopoly GO!, and Stumble Guys under their belt.

We'll have to wait and see how this change will affect the quality of the games. Below is a series of blog posts explaining the situation in more detail.

Quote From Scopely (acquisition announcement)

Scopely to acquire Niantic games business, which includes “Pokémon GO,” one of the most successful mobile games of all time

- Acquisition will welcome Niantic’s entire game development teams, beloved games “Pokémon GO,” “Pikmin Bloom,” and “Monster Hunter Now,” and companion apps and services “Campfire” and “Wayfarer” to Scopely’s diverse video game portfolio, highlighting the company’s ongoing commitment to community-driven, social experiences

- The Niantic games business delights over 30 million monthly active players (MAU) and drove more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024

- “Pokémon GO” continues to be a global sensation, ranking as a top 10 mobile game every year since its launch nearly a decade ago, with 100 million+ unique players in 2024

- Combined portfolio to create one of the largest global player communities in the world, with over half a billion players in 2024 alone

March 12, 2025 – Scopely, the #1 mobile games company in the U.S., announced today it has signed an agreement to acquire Niantic’s games business. The deal, valued at $3.5 billion, will bring Niantic’s entire team of exceptional gamemakers and category-leading games “Pokémon GO,” “Pikmin Bloom,” and “Monster Hunter Now” to Scopely’s portfolio, among other apps and live experiences. At Scopely, the Niantic game teams will continue to pursue their ambitious roadmaps, led by their long-time game studio leaders Kei Kawai and Ed Wu.

As one of the largest, fastest-growing companies in mobile games, Scopely is renowned for its highly social experiences that bring people together and make life better through play. The company’s always-evolving “digital playgrounds” – from “MONOPOLY GO!” to “Stumble Guys,” “Star TrekTM Fleet Command,” “MARVEL Strike Force,” and more – remain part of players’ lives for years on end. This acquisition signals Scopely’s ongoing commitment to and passion for play by further investing in beloved games with deeply engaged communities that span the world.

“Scopely has always been focused on cultivating meaningful communities through a shared love of play, and the Niantic games organization is one of the best in the world at this endeavor. We are extremely inspired by what the team has built over the last decade, delivering innovative experiences that captivate a vast, enduring global audience and get people out in the real world. We look forward to further accelerating the team’s creativity through our partnership,” said Tim O’Brien, Chief Revenue Officer and Board Member of Scopely. “Few games in the world have delivered the scale and longevity of ‘Pokémon GO’, which reached over 100 million players just last year. The experience also stands apart for its unique ability to foster in-person connections, with Pokémon GO live events attracting millions of attendees. After spending time with the Niantic team, it quickly became clear that this organization shares our inclination to create industry-leading outcomes and exceptional player experiences. We look forward to a bright future ahead.”

With this acquisition, the games, apps, and live experiences joining the Scopely portfolio include:

“Pokémon GO” - One of the most successful mobile games of all time, “Pokémon GO” – based on the globally popular Pokémon entertainment franchise – is a category-leading, evergreen game that continues to endure today.

- With over 20M weekly active players, the game has remained a top 10 mobile title every year since its launch in 2016. “Pokémon GO” players, also known as Trainers, have explored more than 30 billion miles together.

- The beloved experience reaches players in over 190 countries and regions, uniting a massive, deeply engaged fan community that averages 40 minutes in daily playtime. Approximately half of all players return to the game seven days a week.

- Unique in-real-life (IRL) events further propel the title, with Pokémon GO live events bringing millions of people together across multiple continents; two million tickets were sold for ‘Pokémon GO Fest’ alone in 2024. Attendees have caught 150 million+ Pokémon since the gatherings debuted.

“Pikmin Bloom” - In collaboration with Nintendo, Niantic unveiled “Pikmin Bloom” in 2021 to help players cover the world in flowers.

- Like the blooms planted by its players, the title continues to blossom, closing out 2024 with a record-breaking year. The game hit its highest active player count more than three years after launch.

- Players took 3.94 trillion steps in 2024 and gathered at in-person community events in Japan, the U.S., Germany, and Taiwan. Pikmin Bloom Journey brought together 10,000+ participants alone in Tokyo last year.

“Monster Hunter Now” - Niantic’s most recent game “Monster Hunter Now” has taken players by storm, particularly in Japan.

- After launching in September 2023, the game reached 15 million+ downloads in just seven months. Its growing playerbase also quickly embraced IRL events, with more than 20,000 people attending the first Monster Hunter Now Carnival event in Shibuya, Japan last October.

- Over 50% of its audience plays every day of the week, representing a deeply engaged player community that mirrors those of Scopely’s existing portfolio.

“Campfire” and “Wayfarer” - These social companion apps and services drive deep engagement across Niantic games. “Campfire” connects local player communities for real-world gameplay, fostering IRL friendships. “Wayfarer” enables players to map new locations for their favorite Niantic games, directly shaping their adventures in the games they love.

- These apps represent Niantic’s innovative approach to location-based games and highlight the team’s drive to continue elevating the player experience.

- In 2024 alone, 6 million+ people checked-in to in-person meet-ups via “Campfire.”

- The “Wayfarer” community has added more than 11.5 million new Wayspot locations to Niantic games since its 2019 launch.

“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,” said John Hanke, founder and CEO of Niantic. “Scopely shares our focus on building and operating incredible live services, has exceptional experience working with the world's biggest and most beloved intellectual properties, and cares deeply about its player communities and game-making teams. I firmly believe this partnership is great for our players and is the best way to ensure that our games have the long-term support and investment needed to be 'forever games' that will endure for future generations.”

Upon the acquisition, Niantic will spin off its technology platform into a new standalone entity, Niantic Spatial Inc. Led by Hanke, Niantic Spatial will be a geospatial AI company powered by a next generation map, enabling devices and machines to understand and interact with the physical world. Niantic Spatial and will continue to own and operate AR games “Ingress Prime” and “Peridot.” 

All members of the Niantic gamemaking team, along with tenured leaders Kei Kawai and Ed Wu, will join over 2,300 Scopeleans across Asia, EMEA, North America, and Central America to continue to develop and operate their beloved experiences.

“It’s been an incredible joy to serve hundreds of millions of Trainers in our real-world community for the past 10 years, and I truly believe the best is yet to come,” said Ed Wu, SVP of “Pokémon GO.” “Our mission remains clear: to inspire people to discover Pokémon in the real world together. With Scopely’s full commitment, experience, and resources, we're going to make Pokémon GO the very best it can be - from incredible battles for thousands of Trainers at a time at our live events to new ways to connect to your friends and community. Most importantly, we’ll remain focused on the excitement and experience of discovering Pokémon in the real world.”

Quote From Scopely (why the acquisition)

A message from Scopely co-CEOs Javier Ferreira and Walter Driver:

Today, we are proud to share that we’ve agreed to acquire the games business of Niantic, Inc. through a deal valued at $3.5 billion. We are extremely excited to welcome their entire team of exceptionally talented gamemakers to Scopely, along with their beloved creations: critically-acclaimed games “Pokémon GO,” “Pikmin Bloom,” and “Monster Hunter Now,” real-world community building app “Campfire,” the “Wayfarer” service, and the global roster of community gatherings that support these games, including “Pokémon GO” live events.

Players can expect that these games, apps, and events will stay true to the experiences they know and love and remain driven by the same dedicated development teams behind these beloved products. Scopely’s role post-closing will be to empower the Niantic game team to pursue their ambitious roadmap by providing resources and support, all in service of giving players more of what they want from their favorite games.

World-class game teams

The Niantic team is a clear leader in mobile games, but what makes them so exceptional is their ability to create innovative experiences that cultivate large, highly engaged, enduring player communities. They bring deep care, skill, and craftsmanship to their work, building games that foster joy and get people out in the real world. Their live services expertise, creative drive, and willingness to take risks to consistently elevate their player experiences has always impressed us. We see many shared values, a commitment to transparency, and a passion for continuous learning between our two teams. We are deeply committed to fostering a culture where gamemakers can do their most creative work. We believe this partnership will further empower the Niantic games team to achieve their exciting long-term goals.

Upon closing, the Niantic games teams will continue to develop and operate their beloved apps and live events at Scopely, under the guidance of their long-time leaders Ed Wu and Kei Kawai. We believe in empowering game teams to go after the roadmaps they are most inspired to pursue and what they believe is best for players. We can’t wait to see the magic they deliver.

Deeply engaged communities across the portfolio

Niantic games have always focused on creating experiences that are made for the real world, inspiring people to come together and form meaningful relationships through play – which firmly aligns with Scopely’s belief that life is better when we play together. The Niantic team’s mission to draw people outdoors, inspire exploration, encourage exercise, and create connection has always set them apart in the games community. Their approach is why they’ve been so successful in capturing the hearts and minds of players around the world.

“Pokémon GO,” for example, reaches people across 190 countries and regions, spanning six continents. What’s more exciting is how committed these players – called Trainers – are to their favorite game. The average Trainer spends 40 minutes a day discovering Pokémon in the real world. The community, which encapsulates all demographics, is drawn to the game day-in and day-out because of social connection, camaraderie, and endless adventures that the Niantic team cultivates.

At Scopely, our games are also designed to foster highly social experiences. We aim every day to build never-ending digital playgrounds – often based on beloved entertainment brands – to welcome home a deeply engaged player community and inspire play, every day.

Both Niantic and Scopely also firmly believe in meeting players where they are. Whether that’s accomplished through live events like Pokémon GO Fest, community apps like Campfire, or cross-platform play as featured in Scopely’s “Stumble Guys” and “Star Trek™ Fleet Command,” everything we do and will continue to do together is in service of forging relationships between players.

An ongoing cultural phenomenon – nine years post launch

Few games in the world have delivered the level of durability and scale as “Pokémon GO,” with one of the most engaged player communities in the world. With over 100 million players just last year, “Pokémon GO” has remained a top 10 mobile title every year since its launch in 2016. It’s an experience “made for the real world,” with players exploring an astonishing 30 billion+ miles over the game’s lifetime.

What makes “Pokémon GO” truly special is its ability to foster in-person connections. “Pokémon GO” live events attract millions of attendees around the world across four key experiences: “Pokémon GO Fest,” “Pokémon GO Tour,” “Pokémon GO Wild Area” and “Pokémon GO City Safari.” The scale of these events is exceptional, rivaling some of the biggest festivals and events in the world. More people attended the global “Pokémon GO Fest” last year than Coachella, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Tomorrowland – combined.

In an era driven by performance marketing, “Pokémon GO” is also a product with exceptional organic interest, as the team has built an incredibly innovative experience that excites players to come back for more and keeps the game at the forefront of popular culture almost a decade after launch. The game’s global Google search volume in the past seven days was nearly 8x greater than the current #1 movie on Netflix, nearly 10x greater than the #1 song on Spotify, and even topped searches for Cristiano Ronaldo, the most followed person on Instagram in the world with over 685M followers.

A unique partnership with a bright future

With the Niantic games business, our combined portfolio will create one of the largest player communities in the world with over half a billion players. We will also be one of the only games companies with two top 10 mobile games (“Pokémon GO” and “MONOPOLY GO!”), which each achieved two of the biggest mobile launches of all time during their respective debuts in 2016 and 2023.

Transformative partnerships, investments, and acquisitions have always been a key pillar of our Scopely strategy. We have a long track record of both investing in and collaborating with game studios acquiring scaled, established brands and teams that are operating at the highest levels – from FoxNext Games to GSN Games to party royale hit “Stumble Guys.” Over our 13 year history, we’ve completed countless transactions, representing billions of dollars worth of deals. We are continually looking for industry- and category-leading products that complement our expertise and portfolio. Just last year, we met with over 800 companies, assessing many products, teams, and technology. Niantic’s games business truly stood out as a one-of-a-kind group.

We are incredibly lucky to be able to do deals of this scale with Savvy at our side. Since our acquisition in 2023, when we became an independently-operated company under the Savvy umbrella, we have spent a good amount of time aligning on what we want to accomplish together. Collectively, we want to be one of the most dynamic and impactful games companies in the world. Finding exceptional teams and products to join our portfolio – like Niantic games and its slate of real-world games – is key to accomplishing that mission. Savvy enables us to go after our long-term ambitions by supporting transactions of this magnitude. This transaction represents one of the largest games deals made by a private company in the last decade, ranking alongside Scopely’s own acquisition by Savvy in 2023 for $4.9 billion.

We can’t wait to see what the future holds, and look forward to welcoming the incredible Niantic games team to the adventure!

Quote From Scopely (message from Niantic)

A message to the Niantic games player communities from the Scopely team:

Today we shared publicly that we signed an agreement to acquire the games business of Niantic, Inc, which includes its team, games, apps and services, including “Pokémon GO,” “Pikmin Bloom,” and “Monster Hunter Now.”

We have long admired the innovative gameplay pioneered by the Niantic games team and the vibrant communities that have shaped the titles into the beloved experiences they are today. We deeply respect what makes these games special – the freedom to explore, the community forged along the way, and the thrill of discovery.

We believe our partnership with the Niantic games team – who will all join Scopely through this acquisition – will further enable them to achieve their exciting long-term goals, which are designed first and foremost with you in mind.

Delivering the best player experiences for years to come

Our approach at Scopely is to empower gamemakers to deliver the best possible player experiences for their communities and go after the roadmaps that they’re most inspired to pursue. With this acquisition, our role is to support the Niantic team on their creative journey, providing the space, resources, and freedom to innovate and iterate on what makes these games meaningful to you.

The talented teams who created and continue to develop “Pokémon GO,” “Pikmin Bloom,” and “Monster Hunter Now” have a clear vision for the future. Scopely is here to help them bring that vision to life in a way that stays true to the spirit of these games and the communities that love them. 

Who is Scopely? Our Approach

Scopely is a team of game-makers — artists, engineers, designers, writers, community managers, and more — working around the world to create engaging and evolving experiences. Everything we do is driven by our mission to inspire play, every day. We believe games have the power to bring people together, and our focus is on supporting teams in crafting experiences that players can enjoy for years on end.

We are fortunate to have built relationships with players across all our games, and we approach this responsibility with care. Whether through player councils, to in-person meet-ups, to active Discord servers, we aim to listen, learn, and foster meaningful connections with the people who play our games.

Games are living, ever-evolving experiences, and we believe in refining and improving them constantly over time. One of our guiding principles is to always look for ways to make each experience better, never stopping at just “good enough.” For example, we spent seven years shaping “MONOPOLY GO!” into an experience that would resonate with MONOPOLY’s global fanbase, iterating along the way to ensure it lived up to the legacy of the game. The same philosophy of thoughtful evolution guides our approach to every game we support.

Our Games

Scopely games span a wide range of genres and platforms - from casual to RPGs, mobile to console, and everything in between. But all our games share some common DNA.

Our games are:

- Socially-driven experiences that spark connection, community and friendly competition among players around the globe
- Dynamic and always-evolving; players will always have a new challenge or world to explore
- Built for the long-term, featuring immersive worlds that players want to return to for years

We believe these pillars align well with Niantic’s games, and our aim is to continue to serve all of our players with dynamic, meaningful, community-first experiences.

Moving Forward, Together

We understand change can lead to uncertainty. But in this case, the most important thing to know is that the games you deeply enjoy will remain the experiences you know and love. Our foremost commitment will always be to you - the community - and the talented game makers will be supported in making these game universes the best they can be.

The magic of “Pokémon GO,” “Pikmin Bloom,” and “Monster Hunter Now” along with Campfire and Wayfarer, is their ability to bring people together, to encourage exploration, and to create moments of pure joy. That’s why we are committed to ensuring that magic continues, and with the same passion you’ve always known.

We look forward to you all continuing the journey with these exceptional games and the teams that make them each day.

Quote From Pokemon GO

Trainers,

I’m Ed Wu and I have the privilege of leading the Pokémon GO team at Niantic. Today I wanted to share some important news: Pokémon GO will be joining Scopely, a video-game developer and publisher home to a wide range of leading games and talented teams around the world.

As it’s always important to me, and our entire game team, that our community understands and is excited by the long-term vision for this game, I want to share why I believe a partnership with Scopely will be a positive step for all of you and the game’s future.

First, Pokémon GO is more than just a game to me; it’s my life’s work. I’ve been part of Niantic since 2012 and deeply involved in many of our projects. In 2015, I was the original engineer on the Pokémon GO codebase, and in 2016, launched the game, working around the clock to make sure that hundreds of millions of Trainers could discover Pokémon in the real world together. Like many of you, I have fond memories from 2016, such as bringing home an alpha build to my then two-year-old daughter who intuitively and enthusiastically became the first young Trainer to ever throw a Poké Ball in our game. As an engineer, I’ve watched the code I’ve written for Pokémon GO change people’s lives drastically for the better. That includes my own family, from relatives improving their health from exercising while playing the game, to hearing so many members of our community recount how they’ve met the love of their lives through playing Pokémon GO and experiencing the incredible real-life community it fosters.

That’s why I’m very excited about today’s announcement. Here are a few reasons why I am confident about the road ahead:

  • Scopely expressed a deep admiration for this community and our team. I have every belief Pokémon GO will further flourish as part of Scopely, not only into its second decade, but for many more years to come, under the mission of discovering Pokémon in the real world and inspiring people to explore together. Our new partnership, along with our decade long partnership with The Pokémon Company, means we can maintain this long-term focus. Scopely fully believes in our mission and ongoing goal to create the best Pokémon GO experience possible. Their focus will be to support our team, providing resources to continue delivering the gameplay you all know and love.
  • The entire Pokémon GO team is staying together through this partnership. The same people who have been guiding and building the game for years will continue doing what we love. We’re always continually adding to the game - Raid Battles, friends, GO Battle League, Routes, Dynamax/Gigantamax, and, of course, Pokémon GO Fest and our live events - which I look forward to continuing to do for many years to come. Scopely empowers their game teams as autonomous groups to go after the roadmaps that they’re inspired to pursue, and what each team believes is best for the player experience. This approach is extremely appealing to us at Niantic games. I have spoken to a number of game leaders at Scopely who have given me great confidence in how the company enables each game to independently develop and creatively thrive.
  • We will be joining a broader organization dedicated to games. I believe that Pokémon GO can continue to thrive with Scopely’s exclusive and long-term focus on game-making. Scopely’s status as a private company also means we can prioritize what’s best for you, our Trainers, for the long term. We believe that prioritizing short-term gains at the expense of our long-term mission would be counterproductive and self-defeating. Every interaction I’ve had with Scopely leaders has reinforced that we are in total agreement that the scale, longevity and most of all, real world community, of Pokémon GO make it truly special. We are united in protecting that.

With Scopely’s full commitment, experience and resources, we’re going to make Pokémon GO the very best it can be – with incredible battles for thousands of Trainers at a time at our live events and new ways to connect to your friends and community, all while remaining focused on the excitement and experience of discovering Pokémon in the real world. We have invested to empower thousands of Community Leaders and Ambassadors who lead millions of Trainers to play together in the real world, and Scopely is in full agreement that this highly-admired program will be a priority to invest in together. The real-world community that loves Pokémon GO will remain our guiding light in all we do.

Our partners at The Pokémon Company have always been central to how we build this game together, starting with the physics of the first Poké Ball throw that we hand-tuned together. I am incredibly grateful for their daily wisdom, guidance, and careful stewardship of our shared vision for discovering Pokémon in the real world, and I’m very excited that our partnership with The Pokémon Company will continue as it has for the last decade.

I won’t say that Pokémon GO will remain the same, because it has always been a work in progress. But how we create and evolve it will remain unchanged, and I hope that we can make the experience even better for all of you.

I have so much gratitude for the incredible joy of serving hundreds of millions of Trainers in our real-world community for the past nine years, and I truly believe the best is yet to come.

-Ed

What do you think of this aquisition? What do you expect to happen to the quality of the games? Let us know in the comments below!