Watch (and cry) as Pokémon Go earns more in minutes than you do in a year

Screenshots and all, it took all of 15 minutes to write this piece, edit it and schedule it to post on our our social media accounts.

In that same timeframe, Pokémon Go has been downloaded a staggering 72,998 times and pocketed Nintendo and Niantic a cool $163,099 (estimated). In the same 15 minutes, I’ve written a few words, pocketed a couple dollars of my monthly salary and watched in awe as AppInstitute (a DIY app builder) charted Pokémon Go’s estimated real-time assault on the word.

Released just shy of two weeks ago, Pokémon Go is closing in on double the daily time spent in-app (iOS) as Facebook and it’s nearly four times as popular as the next most-accessed game on the chart, Slither. In that same (not quite) two weeks, it’s overtaken the behemoth that is Candy Crush Saga to become the most-played game ever, and there’s no sign of slowing down, even for a game that’s not even available in most of the world (yet).

As someone who makes — let’s just say less — in a year than Pokémon Go makes in 15 minutes, it really is mind-boggling to try to wrap your head around just what a phenomenon the application is. But, with AppInstitute’s real-time tracker, at least now we can try.