Despite dropping a whopping 79% in paying players since its peak in mid-July, Pokemon GO still remains the most profitable mobile game currently on the marketplace.

Despite many writing off Pokemon GO as a passing fancy, the game has managed to remain incredibly profitable in the months following its global rollout. Even then, it's hard to deny that the mobile title's user base hasn't dipped substantially since its launch, as recent statistics show that the Niantic-developed software has lost over 15 million daily users – or roughly 33% of its total peak player population. Evidently, that's not something that the studio behind the Pokemon project is keen on allowing to happen.

With that said, Pokemon GO has now dropped 79% of its paying player base since its aforementioned peak on July 15, 2016, according to digital analytics firm Slice Intelligence. It would seem as if the game was in trouble due to the alarming drop rates, but despite this, Pokemon GO has remained the single most profitable mobile title in the world – responsible for generating nearly 25% of total mobile game spending as of September 3, 2016. That's an absurd amount of marketplace dominance, but the success of the Pocket Monster property doesn't even end there.

The same report also claims that Pokemon merchandise saw a huge jump when comparing August of last year to this past one, with the total profit ringing in at 233% more than August 2015. This is likely the result of Pokemon GO's continued popularity, as the mobile game was also credited for increased Nintendo 3DS sales not all that long ago. As a result, it seems apparent that Nintendo's plans to encourage the broad consumer base associated with mobile phones and tablets to pick up merch and hardware are paying off handily.

Although it remains to be seen if such popularity continues through with the likes of the newly announced Super Mario Run, it's a promising sign that the firm's IP has remained in high-demand. Despite not having much to do with Niantic's Pokemon GO, there's still a lot that Nintendo can gain from the success of the franchises it has its hands in, so this could very well just be the tip of the metaphorical iceberg for the firm.

Future Nintendo profitability aside, and despite Pokemon GO seeing a steep decline in paying users, future updates (such as the new Buddy system and the addition of newer Pokemon) could spell a resurgence in popularity for the game. For now, however, Niantic is likely just happy to have it remain the de facto mobile king.

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Pokemon GO is currently available across iOS and Android devices.

Source: Slice Intelligence (via GameSpot)