If you’re one of the people who’ve been watching in bemusement as half the planet seemed to be devoting their lives to catching fictitious characters on their iPhones (even Siri getting in on the action), relief is at hand. New data from an investment company shows that Peak Pokémon Go appears to be behind us as four separate app metrics show the popularity of the game in decline.
Bloomberg reports the data from Axiom Capital Management, which collated data from three different app analytics companies.
Axiom says that the data will come as a relief to investors in other apps.
Data from Sensor Tower, SurveyMonkey and Apptopia, however, show that Pokemon Go’s daily active users, downloads, engagement, and time spent on the app per day are all well off their peaks and on a downward trend.
Claims that the decline signal falling interest in augmented reality as a whole may, however, be stretching things. The company points to Google Trends data that shows a peak in searches for augmented reality following the launch of Pokémon Go, with a steep fall afterwards – but this is hardly surprising when non-tech consumers are exposed to a new term for the first time.
“Given the rapid rise in usage of the Pokémon Go app since the launch in July, investors have been concerned that this new user experience has been detracting from time spent on other mobile focused apps,” writes senior analyst Victor Anthony.
Pokémon Go has been breaking records since launch week, some even suggesting that the game could be worth as much as $3B to Apple.