Pokémon profits down nearly 50% in company's second most profitable year
Pokémon Go, Sun, and Moon accounted for the 2016 spike and subsequent fall-off
Compared to last year The Pokémon Company's profits look disappointing, but they were still the next best thing to a record. The company saw $80.8 million in net profit for the fiscal year ending February 28, 2018, the second highest profit in its 20-year history.
This comes from industry analyst Serkan Toto's translation of the Japanese government's Official Gazette. According to the report, this number was a near 50% drop from the previous year's $145.6 million.
While on its face that seems like an astonishing difference, that $145.6 million was approximately 2,500% higher than the previous year and was the highest profit in the company's 20-year history. This past year's $80.8 million is the second-highest, towering over numbers from the 18th fiscal year ($5.7 million, for comparison) and prior.
The massive spike in 2016 that resounded into this last fiscal year was fueled mainly by Pokémon Go and aided by the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon. Though The Pokémon Company released Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon in November of 2017, the games were apparently far less impactful (no specific revenue information was provided).