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Pokemon Go Its Rise and the Beginning of the Fall
MONDAY,
SEPTEMBER 05, 2016
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We cannot believe it!
When we decided to cover Pokémon Go in a future blog around July 15, the game was taking the world by storm. Within a month of its launch it had garnered between 100 and 160 million (different methodologies produce different numbers) downloads – raking in US $40 million in consumer spend across both app stores. A subreddit on the game had accrued more than 92 million views from nearly 8 million unique users. Pokémon Go, it seemed, was an unstoppable behemoth. Then, the impossible happened.
Barely a month has passed and the foundations that seemed to be forged of steel appear shaky now. Recent data from Bloomberg reveals that the number of daily active users has plummeted from its peak of 45 million to 32 million. Even those still onboard are spending less time than they used to.
Latest data from Google is suggests Bloomberg is right. It shows that people’s interest in the game has taken a huge hit. Interest in Pokémon Go has declined more than 75 percent since reaching its peak in the last week of July.
All signs point to one things: the fad is over and it is time for the game’s developers and hardcore players to adjust themselves to the new reality – to which Angry Birds or Candy Crush fans have become used to.
How did it happen?
Let’s try to understand.
First we will look at the factors that contributed to Pokémon Go’s rise and then we will hypothesize the conditions that have led to such a quick loss of interest – as we will shortly find out, downfall will not the correct word here.
Why did Pokémon Go Become Popular?
As any kid who grew up in the 1990s can tell you, Pokémon was a hugely popular anime back then. The kids who watched it are now in their middle twenties. So when Niantic released a game about their favorite pocket monsters two months ago, many millennials were intrigued.
Nostalgia, coupled with a technology with a cool name “augmented reality” and a clever design that needs players to move in the real world to play, snowballed to attract millions of users. The Internet worked as a catalyst and in a matter of days the world witnessed the rise of the most popular mobile game ever in its history – whose rise to popularity was quicker than both Angry Birds and Candy Crush.
Now, the million-dollar question is: why are people losing interest now?
We have come up with these four reasons
Although it is still too early to be certain, we think there are four main reasons that led to a quick loss of interest in Pokémon Go.
Many people don’t know how to play it
Think about it: it is not a fight game and it is not a hunt game. It is an augmented-reality-supported-game-like-thing that many do not know how to play.
There is pathetically little information available online. Although this has led to many experienced players helping newbies, which leads to stronger communities, it has also swelled the ranks of frustrated players.
It has many bugs
Although we did not notice any major bugs during our play here in Chandigarh, some hardcore players have pointed out several issues in the game’s design and development – leading to the speculation that the developers served all of us a half-baked game.
School Year has started
September 1 marks the start of the school year in many countries. So the kids who had plenty of time on their hands during the summer break have gotten busy now and cannot spend much time with their pocket monsters.
Fads recede over time
If you are reading this, the probability is low that you witnessed the 1958 fad over hoola hoops. It lasted for an entire year - and during that year hoola hoops were the most in-demand toy in the US.
However, we believe all of us can remember everyone around us playing Candy Crush, Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja at one time. Then the fads passed.
Pokémon Go does not buck the trend, but it is the speed with which the game rose and is now showing signs of decline that has puzzled experts. And that is something we can speculate over in a future blog.
Takeway
Before we wrap up, we just want to make it clear despite the recent downturn in popularity Pokémon Go remains a top-grossing and top downloaded game in many countries. And after looking at the rise-and-decline cycle of previous blockbuster apps, Arc Technica predicts that game will still have more than 10 million active users three years from now. So it is not too late.
If you have not downloaded the game, do it now.
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Posted By
Chetan
at
05:34:45
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