Pokémon Go has helped to double the sales of external battery packs in the U.S., according to a new report from the NPD Group.
The popularity of the augmented reality game has come at the cost of a faster draining battery for smartphone owners, which in turn has caused them to seek out ways to extend their play time. The NPD Group says that while portable battery packs sales grew by just 4% year-over-year for the six weeks prior to the launch of Pokemon Go, they were up by a massive 101% between July 10 and July 23, with unit sales of 1.2 million in that time period.
“Pokémon Go is the summer’s hottest game partly because it utilizes features like location, motion sensors and augmented reality in your smartphone- however, these features consume more of the phone’s battery life,” said Ben Arnold, executive director, industry analyst for consumer technology at The NPD Group. “As a way to compensate for the extra battery usage, consumers are buying portable power packs so they can continue to play, uninterrupted.”
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