Popularity of Pokemon Go is Waning in South Korea

According to market research firm WiseApp, 6.43 million South Korean Android phone users played Pokemon Go at least once between February 6 and 12, down 7% from the previous week. The daily average number of South Korean Pokemon Go players was 2.91 million on January 24, when the game was launched in South Korea, and rose to 5.24 million on January 28 but dropped to 3.36 million on February 13. Likewise, the number of South Koreans keeping the game app on their phones decreased from 8.47 million to 8.34 million between February 12 and the following day.

According to industry sources, the decline in the popularity of the game in the country is because of the simplicity and repetitiveness of the game. This has to do with South Korean content consumers’ tendency to feel bored faster and keep finding new content. “For a Pokemon battle, users have to move to the gym, but South Korean game users tend to wish to have a battle when they want to,” said a local game developer.

Another reason is the large mobile data consumption required for the game. According to WiseApp, the hourly mobile data consumption per user by the Pokemon Go was 3.17 MB between February 6 and 12, slightly less than 4.13 MB in the case of the Lineage 2: Revolution, a high-specification mobile RPG game.

Besides, an increasing number of users in non-major cities are mentioning that Pokemons and Pocket Stops are harder to come by than in major cities like Seoul.