Pokémon Go has surpassed 500 million downloads

The meteoric rise continues, with Pokémon Go crossing the 500 million install mark today. The milestone encompasses both Android and iOS, but as we’ve seen in past figures, Android constitutes the vast majority of those downloads. This means we’ll likely see the same headline (but on Android only) in the next few weeks. At this rate, the game might reach a billion installs by the end of the year.

It’s probably safe to say the immediate novelty bubble has started to wear thin, but it is far from bursting. There may not be much left in the way of untapped markets, barring Russia, where the Kremlin released its own whacky AR game as a substitute and South Korea where trainers have to hear towards North Korea (of all places) to be able to play.

The amount of exercise the game has generated is almost as impressive as the ludicrous amounts of money it has made for its developer Niantic. The studio also revealed just how much ground players have covered while hunting pocket monsters: 4.6 billion kilometers (2.85 billion miles). That’s 15 round trips to the sun and back. And there aren’t even any good Pokémon there.

The game made over $200 million for Niantic in its first month with $100 million of that coming in the first three weeks (when it was hardly available anywhere outside Australia and the U.S.). With Apple announcing Pokémon Go for the Apple Watch, Pokémon Go’s global takeover doesn’t look like it will be dying off any time soon. In other news, the Pokémon Go Plus wearable is launching next week.

How far have you walked in pursuit of Pokémon? Found yourself any fitter because of it?