Where Did The Popularity Go?
We all remember in the summer of 2016 when Pokemon Go was first released. Mass groups of college and high school students were running around towns and cities trying to catch as many Pokemon as they could. Even adults and parents joined in their adventures.
Pokemon Go made the news more than once with incidents of people getting in car accidents, breaking and entering, and even stumbling upon dead bodies. This of course led to the features in which the screens tell you to be aware of your surroundings and that it prevents you from playing when you’re going too fast.
Yet after all of that Pokemon Go disappeared. There weren’t many memes about it anymore, it was never on the news, and packs of people dwindled. Almost six months in people rarely talked about Pokemon Go let alone invite friends to go pokemon hunting with them.
The question remains; what happened?
What likely happened was winter came; it started getting cold and no one wanted to be outside. The explanation is simple enough. Yet there is probably more to it than that.
One of the biggest reasons it’s apparent popularity dwindled was probably because of school. The school year was starting up and no one has time for that. When someone spends 5 to 7 hours a day in class and then several hours on homework they won’t be going out with friends anytime soon.
Let’s be real, school sucks and you can’t do much of anything social if you want to pass.
Pokemon Go Didn’t Actually Die
The game we all know and love is still alive and well today. As of June 2017 Pokemon go has over 9 million downloads from google play alone. As of January 2017 Pokemon Go has made over 1 billion dollars of revenue from in app purchases alone.
As the one year anniversary nears Niantic has also planned for a real life event in Chicago as well as virtual events in the app! The festival will be in Chicago, Illinois and there will be updates to include “collaborative group gameplay”
What likely happened to its popularity is that the apps usage changed. People had to go back to work and go back to school so pokemon hunting isn’t usually a massive adventure. People will open it for a few minutes during a break or while on a short walk.
So it may not be an all out adventure like the show but Pokemon Go is still just as popular as ever.
There’s nothing like the fun of taking other gyms, Happy hunting.
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