Saudi Public Investment Fund Acquires Pokémon GO Data After Niantic Sale

In 2025, Niantic sold the Pokémon GO mobile game to Scopely, a U.S. mobile‑gaming company backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), for about $3.5 billion. Scopely retained the game, while Niantic kept the extensive location‑based data collected from millions of players and created a new unit, Niantic Spatial, to commercialise it.

The data set comprises roughly 30 billion images of urban environments captured by players through the game’s “Poképarade” feature, along with metadata such as timestamps, weather conditions and camera angles. Researchers say the collection is being used to train artificial‑intelligence models for high‑precision navigation that can outperform GPS in dense cityscapes.

Meanwhile, Pokémon GO marked its 10th anniversary in July 2026 with coordinated fan events in cities such as London, Toronto and New York, highlighting the game’s lasting global community and its role in encouraging outdoor activity.