Pokémon Go is losing its Hypno-esque grip on consumers after its breakout summer last year, according to a survey by the marketing company Fluent LLC. Developer Niantic Inc. is celebrating the app’s one-year anniversary this year with plenty of real-world and in-game events, but Fluent found that 50 percent of people surveyed were “much less” interested in it compared to other mobile games.
The online survey was on June 14, and the 2,317 respondents were all ages 18 and up. Fluent asked the respondents a range of questions to gauge general interest, as well as questions based on whether or not the respondents currently have the app on their phone.
Despite marketing around its one-year anniversary and the Pokémon Go Fest later this month, only 15 percent of respondents said they heard “a great deal” about Pokémon Go this year, 54 percent of which went on to download the game. Of the 48 percent of respondents who heard “nothing at all,” 9 percent downloaded the game.
This year, Niantic has reached $1.2 billion lifetime sales and has been downloaded 752 million times. According to Fluent, 97 percent of people who didn’t already have Pokémon Go on their phones said they had no plans of downloading it. This supports the idea that most of Niantic’s revenue is from a loyal user base, which it’s trying to court with frequent in-game events.
The numbers are encouraging when it comes to those who still play the game, with 33 percent of respondents in that category saying they play it every day. It’s also receiving mainly positive feedback, with 41 percent rating their gaming experience as “excellent” and 26 percent rating it as “very good.”
It also continues to be a way for folks to get in those extra steps; 68 percent of respondents said they walk more since playing the game. This is often to a specific location in search of a specific Pokémon to catch, according to 62 percent of people. The top locations visited by players are parks, followed by restaurants and local monuments. About 59 percent of people who have visited restaurants because they’re PokéStops this year have purchased something, and 43 percent of players have made in-app purchases as well. Though Pokémon Go isn’t set to go viral again any time soon, it still has an active community of fans who are willing to spend dollars.
