Niantic to shutdown Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

Niantic’s second AR game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, is about to be shut down. The augmented reality game was launched two years ago and attempted to bring the fantasy world of Hogwarts to life. However, it never really enjoyed the same popularity as Pokemon Go.

Existing players won’t be able to play Wizards Unite after January 31, 2022. The game will be pulled off from Google Play and the App Store on December 6th, 2021. The in-game purchases will also be disabled on December 6th. Players can redeem their existing currency until January 31st.

When Harry Potter: The Wizards Unite came out, it gathered a generous user base. However, the game couldn’t gather the same audience as Pokemon Go. Compared to Pokemon Go, Wizards Unite had more story, but story-driven games are not for everyone.

As for stats and figures, Wizards Unite saw around 2.3 million downloads and players had spent over $39.4 million. But when these figures are compared to Pokemon Go, they seem bleak. Pokemon Go has managed to garner a revenue of $1.1 billion in 2021 alone.

Another notable reason why the AR game is being shut down is that Niantic is working on other games. For example, Niantic and Nintendo worked together on Pikmin Bloom, which has recently started rolling out around the world.

The company is also working on another AR game, Transformers: Heavy Metal where players will face battles with giant robots. Apart from this, Niantic has several unannounced projects lined up.