News

Pokemon GO loses out to Clash Royale as highest grossing app on iOS

Pokemon OH dear....

Pokemon GO loses out to Clash Royale as highest grossing app on iOS
|
iOS
| Pokemon GO

After 74 days of sitting as King of the App Store, Pokemon GO has officially lost its title as the highest grossing iOS app. Was it dethroned by a new contender, ready to make a daring entrance? Quite the opposite actually as our old friend Clash Royale made its mark by introducing microtransactions.

Obviously, this doesn't spell the end for Pokemon GO as it still belted out of the starting gates so ferociously it may as well as blown the doors right off, however an interesting article by Forbes earlier brought an interesting fact to light - It isn't very well monetised.

Mr. Tassi brings some very interesting factors to light throughout, such as the fact that as you proceed and increase your levels in-game, the less incentive there is to actually buy anything in the store.

Join our article where you can add your Pokemon GO friend code and find new people to play with!

He makes a brilliant point that the purchases meant to help you, such as Incense, actually don't help lure anything other than a handful of Pidgeys and Rattatas. It's the digital version of sticking a pound coin in a change machine hoping for two 50ps and getting a load of pennies spat out at you. You can also buddy up with a friend to go Pokemon hunting together and reap the rewards of a single lure between you, so I think Niantic missed a trick there.

As mentioned, it could also be down to the app's fading popularity, but there are undoubtedly certain things that Niantic could work on to improve their monetisation. Take a look at CSR Racing 2, and you'll have a pretty good model to work with.

Emily Sowden
Emily Sowden
Emily is Pocket Gamer's News Editor and writes about all kinds of game-related things. She needs coffee to function and begrudgingly loves her Switch more than she lets on.