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Pokemon Go's Paying Population Drops By 79% -- Still Most Profitable Mobile App In The US (metro.co.uk)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Metro: The world's obsession with Pokemon Go was clearly never going to last, but the incredible thing about its success is that although the paying population of the game is now down by 79% from its mid-July peak it's still easily the most profitable mobile app in the U.S.. According to analysts at Slice Intelligence, at its peak Pokemon Go inspired twice as many people as normal to spend money on mobile games, but that's now returned to normal. But Pokemon Go still accounts for 28% of all money spent on mobile games in America, bringing in six times more than nearest rival Candy Crush Saga. The obvious problem for Pokemon Go is that there's not really much gameplay to keep you coming back, and as winter approaches wandering around the countryside is going to lose some of its appeal somewhat. But there's a huge range of new features that could be added to the app, and just this week has seen the introduction of the buddy feature that lets you walk around and team-up with a particular Pokemon. There's also the delayed release of the Pokemon Go Plus Bluetooth device and the recent announcement of the Apple Watch app.
Most of the articles I've seen about this inevitable dropoff in popularity have had an underlying implication that Niantic had done something very wrong. What is often left unsaid is the second part of this headline: it is still INSANELY profitable. SIX TIMES more profitable than its nearest competitor. Pokemon Go is still an app developer's wet dream. Yes, Niantic has had some big stumbles in their rollout, and yes, the fad has died down a lot. But they're still raking in money hand over fist, and they've still got a pretty loyal fan base, and if they're smart they'll continue to roll out new features to keep people interested for some time.
Right now the app allows users to catch 151 different Pokemon. The Wikipedia page states there are 721 Pokemon available in all the different games. If they need to give the app's popularity a little boost, they'll release some of the 570 others. "Gotta catch 'em all", right?
I'm at level 22 and have never spent a cent.
The "unassailable thirst for pokeballs" is easily quenched by simply visiting a place with a lot of pokestops (airports, malls, movie theaters, museums, etc) and spending a half-hour collecting, or by having the app open while driving anywhere as you can easily trigger a lot of them that are by the road.
I have scores of all three levels of pokeballs just hanging around and I capture everything I can.
I personally think the game is pretty well balanced, the game is nudging to to explore the full range of what is going on... if you are running out of pokeballs, then it may be better to head to a gym and fight there (which gives you virtual coins you would otherwise spend money on). If you are out of resources for fighting, after you've visited a few stops you are usually pretty full of pokeballs again.
The game is defiantly a lot of repetitive actions, but is also still interesting as you find what pokemon like to hang out at different places, watch the ebb and flow of teams at gyms... no worse I'd say than any of the MMORPG games that are so popular.
If nothing else it gets people outside and doing real exercise which automatically puts it heads and shoulders above just about any other game.
I know some impatient people do spend money on the game but I really don't see a pressing need to do so.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley