On June 20, 2019, the USA and UK saw the release of Harry Potter Wizards Unite for their smartphones — one day earlier than expected.
Since then, the mobile game was downloaded more than 400,000 times in just twenty-four hours — heading directly for the top spot in both the Google Play Store and App Store.
This is not surprising, given the success of Pokémon GO and the expectations surrounding Wizards Unite.
However, that's not all — more than $300,000 was already spent in-game through microtransactions in the same period!
Despite the spend, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite remains a free-to-play game — there is no obligation to spend money in order to progress in the game.
App analytics firm AppAnnie predicts that the game will reach $100 million spent in its opening 30 days — this compares to Pokémon GO, which reached that figure in just two weeks.
In its first 24 hours, Pokemon GO hit number one in terms of downloads. As far as Wizards Unite is concerned, it is ranked 102, with no data for Google Play yet.
This difference can be explained by the Pokémon fanbase, which was better informed of the game's release and had millions of players present from the start.
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Three years after the release of Pokémon GO, Niantic has released the next big concept of augmented reality on mobile phones — Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. It's an identical concept, but with updated mechanics and increased expectations. Can HPWU win over Pokémon Trainers?
