Pokémon TCG Pocket, the new smartphone version of the classic Pokémon trading card game, looks to be off to a strong and lucrative start.
A report into its launch by app store analytics firm AppMagic suggests the game has reached 12m downloads worldwide and earned $12.1m across its first four days, for an average of $3m every 24 hours (thanks, MobileGamer.biz).
45 percent of earnings so far come from Pokémon’s home turf of Japan, with US the second-largest market, providing 25 percent of the game’s app store revenue.
Using the same metrics, Pokémon Go is reported to net around $1m per 24 hours – though the game also generates revenue outside of its app via various means, most notably its increasingly-prominent web-based storefront.
Pokémon TCG Pocket is heavily engineered around the opening of card packs, though you can also unlock the ability to play a faster-paced version of the traditional Pokémon card game too.
Players get to open up to two card packs per day for free, if you build up enough “Pack Stamina”, and can purchase further packs for real-world money.
Further microtransactions exist to reduce the wait for new packs and cards, plus cosmetic options where you can customise your digital card folders, playmats and coins.
“There’s one inescapable truth about TCG Pocket though – it is free-to-play, and it wants your money,” Eurogamer’s Lottie Lynn wrote after playtesting Pokémon TCG Pocket. “It wants your money so badly in fact, you’d think it’s been possessed by a Gimmighoul.”
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