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Pokémon GO Smartphone Game Has 800 Million Downloads

How many of those people still play the game? Probably not even half.

One of the funniest things that I've seen since the reveal is the idea that people who downloaded a free to play game are going to plunk down ~$350 (or $400 with the Pokeball accessory) in order to play Pokemon Lets Go.

Yes, 800 million downloads for a free game. I bet if Sun/Moon were released for free on mobile they'd get over a billion downloads.

-SP- wrote:

How many of those people still play the game? Probably not even half.

I think it depends on where you live. For example, most of the players that I raid with are at or very close to level 40 (current max level) and most have been playing since Day 1. However, when I went to Animazement in Raleigh, NC this past weekend, I only encountered two other players who, like myself, were at level 40. That was very strange to me as I have raided in other cities at anime conventions, and found their demographic to be a close mirror to the environment that I play in. However, in Raleigh, most of the players were level 30 and under, so that made raiding quite problematic especially when they were bringing in Pokémon like Aggron to battle Latias.

While living in rural areas affects a player's longevity in the game (assuming they're not spoofing), having an active raiding community also helps.

You're delusional if you don't think ANY Pokemon game is a system seller.

CurseTheSky wrote:

You're delusional if you don't think ANY Pokemon game is a system seller.

You are misinterpreting my argument. Yes, Lets Go will sell consoles to prior Pokemon 3DS owners. It's not going to sell to people who played a free app on their phones for a few weeks in the summer two years ago and never picked up a Pokemon game since. If those people didn't get a 2DS for $100 to play Sun/Moon then there's no way they are spending 3-4 times that to play Let's Go just because they took out wild Pokemon battles.

Megiddo wrote:

CurseTheSky wrote: You're delusional if you don't think ANY Pokemon game is a system seller. You are misinterpreting my argument. Yes, Lets Go will sell consoles to prior Pokemon 3DS owners. It's not going to sell to people who played a free app on their phones for a few weeks in the summer two years ago and never picked up a Pokemon game since. If those people didn't get a 2DS for $100 to play Sun/Moon then there's no way they are spending 3-4 times that to play Let's Go just because they took out wild Pokemon battles.

Well, one other possible point of appeal is its Generation I focus...though I'm sure as a Pokémon fan, I encounter genwunners a lot more often than the norm.