Pokemon Go losing steam in Korea

By Lee Min-hyung

The mega-hit mobile game Pokemon Go is losing steam here, with its user base nosediving over the past two months since its debut here in January.

According to data from app market researcher Wise App, the weekly number of Pokemon Go users came in at some 4.27 million, plunging from 7 million in the last week of January.

Market insiders attribute the dwindling popularity to “no additional wow factors” except for the augmented reality (AR) functions of the game.

Niantic, the Pokemon Go developer, is making its own efforts to update the game with new features, adding 80 new Pokemon characters last month and expanding partnerships with convenience store chains such as 7-Eleven.

But the efforts have fallen short of expectations at least in the Korean market, as the updates do not add any surprising and new playing experiences for its users.

“Even if the company keeps updating new characters, this does not bring any fundamental change to the mobile game,” an IT industry watcher said.

“Collecting Pokemon in reality is the only entertaining point, which users have started getting tired of,” he added.

The Pokemon game at first succeeded in drawing massive interest, but the non-dynamic playing experience has left a growing number of users opting for other games, he added.

Niantic CEO John Hanke recently hinted at introducing player-versus-player modes and special promotional events for the game, raising expectations for a rebound here. But he did not specify an exact timeline for the updates.

The game got off to a good start, recording over 10 million downloads at Google Play and the Apple App store combined in January. But it has started to lose its luster, with the number of its weekly users between Feb. 6 and 12 reaching 6.43 million, down 7 percent from the previous week’s record of some 7 million, according to Wise App data.