Pokemon Go revenue plummets following Remote Raid changes
Pokémon Go players seem to have been drastically reducing their spending and activity in the game, following controversial changes to Remote Raids that caused outrage among the player base last month. A new report shows that spending on the game has fallen by 40% over a two month period.
As reported by Mobilegamer.biz, Pokémon Go earned $34.7 million in revenue in the month of April, down from $42.8 million in March and 57.9 million in February. As noted by VGC, this makes April the worst-performing month for the game since February 2018, which is a pretty dire statistic.
The main driving force behind the drop in revenue is almost certainly the changes to Remote Raids that were implemented on April 6. The gist of the changes is that Remote Raid passes, which allow players to participate in raids without being physically at them, doubled in price.
That alone probably would have been enough to piss players off, but the company also instituted a 5-per-day limit on Remote Raid participation, meaning even if you did cough up extra cash for the passes, you still wouldn’t be able to participate in more than five raids. Naturally, players were not happy.
Pokémon Go players tried to reason with Niantic over the changes, with an open letter signed by dozens of high-profile content creators, competitive players, and fan sites. The letter noted that the change negatively impacted rural players, players with disabilities, and those who might not be able to participate in raids during the day, when most events take place.
Despite players’ anger, and a very widespread hashtag that trended for almost a week straight, Niantic ultimately went ahead with the changes, saying that the change was “necessary for the long-term health of the game.” Evidently it’s not been great for the short-term health of the game’s financial situation, though, and it’s hard to see that changing without Niantic doing something big to address players’ frustrations.
