“Harry Potter: Wizards Unite”, a hit that didn’t happen
A week after its global launch, the long awaited Niantic game got underwhelming reviews and results.
When in late 2017 the creators of Pokémon Go announced that they were working on an AR Harry Potter game, the project seemed explosive: a franchise with millions of followers in a new and exciting format.
However, after a year and a half’s wait and trailers as exciting as any movie, Niantic rolled out Harry Potter: Wizards Unite a week ago, with somewhat disappointing results.
In its opening weekend the game got 3 million downloads and made 1,1 million dollars through in-app purchases (88% of them in the US). It has yet to arrive to Japan and South Korea, two major markets, but it’s expected to make about 10 million dollars in the first 30 days.
Though most developers would kill for those numbers, in this case it’s a lot less that was previously anticipated. In a report published this month, App Annie forecasted a revenue of 100 million dollars in one month.
For reference, when Pokémon Go came out in mid-2016, it made 28 million dollars and got 25 million downloads in its opening weekend, and by the end of that month had earned 206 million dollars and 173 million users. Fundamentally, it became a massive and lovely global phenomenon, that is still relevant three years later.
What went wrong?
Reviews for the game are mixed, but generally not great. It’s been said it’s just like Pokémon Go but more complex. Some think that adds interest, others find it unnecessarily convoluted.
Many point out as well that, while in the 2016 hit the core game mechanic (walking around the neighborhood looking for valuable creatures or objects) perfectly aligns with the story and its universe, in this case it seems artificial.
Beyond all that, it might be that location based AR games are just no longer new. When Pokémon Go came out, the multitudes that played it were not only nostalgic fans of the franchise, and the app had flaws that were solved in time. What was appealing was the novelty and the massiveness of the whole experience.
Is everything lost?
Wizards Unite will likely keep gaining players and IAPs in time, but a game’s first week is usually decisive. Probably, though, it won’t reach a critical mass of users that makes it a sensation.
Nevertheless, even if it never outdoes Pokémon Go´s spectacular performance, that doesn’t mean the game will do badly. It will surely be profitable, although we don’t know how much Niantic has spent on it.
One unexpected winner in this launch has been Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, by Jam City, another app that has lately doubled its usual installs in all the confusion.
In any case, other major entertainment brands have AR games on the way for 2020: one of Stranger Things, in a ’80s cartoon style, and one of Captain Tsubasa.
Meanwhile, hopefully potterheads that are enjoying Wizards Unite will have good fortune and lots of fun on their magical adventures.
