According to new data, Pokemon GO is continuing to lose players rapidly.
A Bloomberg article compiled information from SurveyMonkey, Apptopia, and Sensor Tower to get an accurate reading on Pokemon GO’s current userbase. What they have found is that the amount of time that players spend on the game has steadily dropped in recent weeks. User engagement with Pokemon GO had been in decline until August 6th, the date of the app’s launch in the Philippines and many other countries, where it saw a massive spike in players and play time that has slowly declined.
In addition, Google Trends has shown that fewer and fewer people are looking for Pokemon GO or augmented reality products. Virtual reality, on the other hand, continues to rise in the public’s interest. An Ars Technica article estimates that over 12 million people have dropped the app since July.
Niantic has not given up on the game, though, and they are currently rolling out the next update for the game. This update will include a feature that will allow your Team Leader to give you a heads-up on what Pokemon to use in battle.
Is Pokemon GO Dying? Not Exactly
While all of this news sounds menacing, the reality is that Pokemon GO is not going to disappear in the middle of the night due to lack of interest. These types of things happen all the time with games. A new game comes out, everyone gets hyped, and then the initial furor of fans begins to wane.
In the case of Pokemon GO, a lot of the declining interest has to do with Niantic. The developer has been notoriously silent on many player frustrations. One of those frustrations is the game’s tracking feature, which had a massive overhaul recently. The update disabled popular third-party trackers such as PokeVision at the cost of no longer signaling how far away players needed to walk to find new Pokemon. Even this latest update is striking down other tracking sites that have cropped up in PokeVision’s wake.
Pokemon GO isn’t dying, but it has been losing the attention of many due to the game’s obtuse developer and declining hype. It may not be the end, but it could mean the beginning of the end unless Niantic adds new content to bring people back.