In Japan, these kind of games have been popular for at least a couple of years.

One I know of is "Keitai Kunitori Gassen" where players check-in to different regions of Japan to get points and take them over. They have enough money to advertise the game on the trains. The interesting thing is they have hardcore users who will travel all around Japan to check in to locations. This actually ties into part of their business model, where they are paid by businesses to hold special events at certain locations. A couple years ago, they said they could get a couple thousand people to go to a location just by holding an event there.