POKEMON GO TO BECOME FIRST $1bn PHONE GAME

The mobile phone game industry is today worth £45bn – and it is women aged 35 and 44 who spend the most

It is estimated that 1.8bn hours a year are spent playing the mobile game Angry Birds

The most bought game of all time was Tetris – with 495m copies sold

The first-ever video game was called Bertie the Brain in 1950. It was essentially noughts and crosses

Britain has a vibrant video game industry with £2.2bn invested in it last year by private finance firms MANY people loathe it, and millions love it – but what’s clear is that Pokemon Go is a money-spinner.

Figures released yesterday show players had spent £192m on the addictive mobile phone game and it’s on course to hit sales of $1bn (£771m) – the most by a phone game ever. The sales beat previous best-selling mobile phone games Clash of Clans made by Finnish games firm Supercell and King.com’s Candy Crush Soda Saga.

Shares of Nintendo, which distributes the game, have climbed since it was released last month. Although after initially rising 119pc, they fell 18pc after bosses revealed the firm did not have as big a stake in the game as first thought. The game is designed by US tech firm Niantic.

In the UK, 1m people paid to play it in its first month, with the majority paying between 80p and £14.99. Although Pokemon Go is free to download and use on a phone, players can spend money getting new features and hunting out more elusive Pokemon.