Pokémon Go rolled out a big update on Monday, and it might be just in time, because people aren't using the app as much, according to three third-party analytics firms.
There have been a bunch of nagging problems that have plagued Pokémon Go since its launch, only some of which have been addressed. But the core premise was strong enough that more and more people were playing the game, obsessively, despite those problems.
That undeniable upward momentum, however, seems to have ceased.
Bloomberg points to data from Sensor Tower, SurveyMonkey Intelligence, and Apptopia, all of which show Pokémon Go's active users and downloads are in decline.
Data from SurveyMonkey Intelligence, reviewed by Business Insider, has Pokémon Go's weekly active user count in the US peaking on July 24 at around 40 million, and sitting at 28 million on August 18. SurveyMonkey Intelligence also says Pokémon Go's monthly active user count, and US downloads, have both peaked and are trending down.
Here is the weekly active users chart:
The monthly active users chart:
And the downloads chart:
Conversely, weekly churn, defined by "percentage of existing users who used the app in a given week but didn’t use it the following week," has been on the rise:
This doesn't mean that Pokémon Go is dead. It's still the top-grossing app on the US iOS charts, according to App Annie, and sitting at No. 16 for downloads.
But it does mean that Pokémon Go's upward trajectory seems to have stalled — for now. Perhaps it's time for Niantic, the app's creator, to start seriously addressing some of the problems that are hampering the gaming experience.
