Yowza, Pokemon TCG Pocket is off to a flying start, as one report says the mobile trading card game is making three times as much as Pokemon Go.
If you’re even remotely aware of the real life Pokemon Trading Card Game, you’ll know that it is incredibly popular – not even really because of the competitive side, but just to collect the things. Collecting them has become so popular that certain cards skyrocketed in price because of their rarity, with grifters coming in to ruin things for everybody else, and the pandemic also boosting hobbies like card collecting. So it felt like a game like Pokemon TCG Pocket, which is entirely designed around collecting, was always destined to do well, and as it turns out, it has done ridiculously well in its opening days.
Mobilegamer.biz has reported that mobile app tracker Appmagic estimates that Pokemon TCG Pocket has brought in $3 million per day over the weekend, making a grand total of $12 million in just four days. Those are wild numbers, and right now that puts it at triple the amount Pokemon Go generally makes per day, which is around $1 million. Obviously the difference is Pokemon Go is a good few years old now, and the launch period will always have people spending the most, but it’s still a very, very strong start for the digital trading card game.
Apparently a huge majority of that is coming from Japanese players, who apparently make up 45% of the game’s earnings so far, with the US coming in second bringing in 25% of the revenue so far. Interestingly, though, of the 7.5 million downloads, 29% of those aer from the US, with Japan only making up 4%, so Japanese players are clearly quite big spenders.
Shortly after the game launched, players quickly convinced themselves that there are special methods you can use to guarantee hits, but like with every other Pokemon rumour, there’s not much truth to be found there.