Advertisement
Culture

Pokemon Go suffers inevitable drop in players as initial excitement dies down

Lack of updates, fatal accidents and the nature of fads has led to a drop in Pokemon Go players; if only its makers could tap a huge market hungry for the game - China. That is unlikely, though

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Pokemon Go is available in Hong Kong but not in China. Photo: Nora Tam
The Washington Post

Pokemon Go stories stopped being funny some time ago.

Perhaps it was the day in July when a man in the US state of Florida opened fire on two teenagers at 1.30am while they were sitting in a car playing the game. Neither was injured. Or maybe it was when two men fell off a cliff overlooking the Pacific near San Diego while chasing Pokemon monsters, suffering only moderate injuries despite falling more than 15 metres.

Now come reports of a truck driver in Japan who, distracted while playing Pokemon Go, crashed into two pedestrians, Sachiko Nakanishi, 72, and Kayoko Ikawa, 60, killing the first and severely injuring the second, and of a woman in her 20s hit by a Pokemon Go player’s car two weeks ago in Aichi prefecture dying of her injuries.
Advertisement

So perhaps it’s just as well, that, as Bloomberg reports, the game, which had the world in a frenzy, is now experiencing a decline.

“Data from Sensor Tower, SurveyMonkey, and Apptopia ... show that Pokemon Go’s daily active users, downloads, engagement, and time spent on the app per day are all well off their peaks and on a downward trend,” Bloomberg reported.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x