Pokémon Go Has Lost Millions of Players, But It’s Still Making Millions of Dollars

Remember Pokémon Go? We were such nerds back then! Just kidding, we're still nerds. And even though you've left Charizard behind along with your pogs and troll dolls and stone-washed jeans, reports of the app's decline are missing the point---along with hundreds of millions of dollars.

It's not like Pokémon Go needs white knight (or a 200 HP Snorlax) to defend it. It's cashing in! It's doing just fine. But it also presents a unique opportunity to look at just how the app store economy works, and why public perception rarely lines up with the, in this case, very profitable reality.

Remember, this is an industry where an app can lose 20 million players in a month, and on some days make even more money. At least, if that app Pokémon Go.

I get it. When Pokémon Go launched, you were right there with it. You joined team Valor, you caught a few dozen Weedles, you maybe even coughed up real money for fake coins to pay for lures to catch digital monsters with names that are a little on the nose, no offense Spearow. You maybe, maybe even figured out the Easter egg that guarantees your Eevee evolves exactly how you wanted it to.

But the Pidgeys piled up, and temperatures cooled, and so did your interest in catching them all, or even catching them some. Adolescent Pokéfans went back to school. You went back to Twitter and Instagram and a plague of iMessage stickers. Suddenly, gyms and Poké Stops seem a lot less crowded.

That's anecdotal, but it's also true! Pokémon Go spent weeks at or near the top of the iTunes rankings for free apps. Now it's 30th. According to the latest numbers from app market analyst Apptopia, monthly active users plummeted from 50.2 million on August 12 down to 32.4 million on Sept 10. Average session times fell sharply as well, from 6.82 minutes to 5.41 The implication: That sure ended fast.

Here's the thing. Those charts with the downward-drooping red lines, and even what you've seen with your own eyes, belie what's really going on with Pokémon Go, which is that that it's still an absolute monster. Apps don't make money the way you might think. In most cases, they don't need you to make money at all.

What's lost in talk of Pokémon Go decline is context, so here's a dose. First, according to app analytics company App Annie, about one in 10 US smartphone users are still playing the game. Pokémon Go is still as popular on Android as Twitter, and matches up with Pinterest on iOS. And in Japan? At least 20 percent of smartphone users play regularly.

That's not to say the decline isn't real; it definitely is. But all apps fade in time. The right question to be asking is how much.