So Pokémon Masters seems to be a dud.

[Busaiku]

Sensor Tower noted that it earned $33 million in its 1st month.
That's not the worst, but it should be noted that it earned $26 million in its 1st week, according to Sensor Tower. Meaning it earned only $7 million in the 3 weeks that followed.

Anecdotally speaking, the game is at 126 on the Play Store and the OT here is dead.

Of course, I have no idea what Pokémon or DeNA's expectations for the game, but I can't imagine they had such little hope for the first real Pokémon gacha.
This also seems to be another in a long line of underwhelming performances of Pokémon games on mobile, outside of Pokémon Go. Of course I doubt anyone expected much from stuff like Magikarp Jump, but I doubt the same holds true for this.

Many (including myself) expected this to be big. A Pokémon gacha on mobile seems like the easiest multibillion release ever.

Personally speaking, the game itself is not very good.
The gameplay loop is very bland, with Co-Op being the worst, which is where most of the game is.

The game is also super stingy with its currency, especially relative to the cost of Scouting.
It just all adds up to making it feel pointless to even play, explaining the huge drop in player engagement (like the OT here and overall spending).
It's currently the 2nd worst rated Pokémon game on Google Play, tied for 4th worst rated Pokémon app on the storefront.

How do you mess up a Pokémon gacha so badly.
I still spent money on this.

 

[Deleted member 2791]

I had such high hopes at launch, but they couldn't have messed more how they handled this. The sort-of real time based battle system doesn't work and quickly becomes a pain rather than a challenge like they are in other gachas games. They're painfully slow at adding characters that people actually care about (there was Blue but that's it) and the events themselves are just mindless grinding. And as you say, it's also very greedy and it doesn't help.

There's just not much fun to have in this game. I found myself playing a ton more Mario Kart Tour than this despite that my tastes are usually the complete opposite.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I'm also pretty surprised by this and don't know what to make of it. While I didn't try it myself, I expected it to be very popular, especially because it featured so many trainers and "trainer fans" are not usually catered to outside the TCG.

And yet, it doesn't seem to have impressed people at all. 🤔

 

[PlayBee]

I played a ton the first week and gave up after I rolled 40 times without getting a single 5 star. Wouldn't spend a cent with my luck.

 

[Charizard]

There is no content aside from coop which needs to be sped up. Also, a lack of free gems isn't fun because pulling is fun.

Ill start playing a lot again if they add lots more content tbh.

Also the character balance is ass but that is a seperate issue.

 

[Pokémon]

But some posters here told me they were more hyped for Pokémon Masters than Sword/Shield, how is that possible? 🤔

 

[The Last One]

If they could at least make the game support 32 bits Android.

 

[FiXalaS]

There is nothing that makes me open the game tbh, gameplay isn't that fun and the pokemon masters pool doesn't have the good stuff yet.

Dragalia on the other hand by cygames started doing events in its 2nd or 3rd week and has been doing events non-stop until anniversary.

 

[Xavi]

PM is greedy as hell so I'm not surprised. I haven't logged in a week.

Play Dragalia Lost

 

[Lukar]

I stopped playing it due to the gacha. The game's presentation is great, but I hate being nickle and dimed.

 

[EvilChameleon]

I lasted a couple hours with this game before deleting it. The premise is interesting, all these cool trainers are joining you to battle in a region! But it's slow and plodding.

 

[Busaiku]

But some posters here told me they were more hyped for Pokémon Masters than Sword/Shield, how is that possible? 🤔

Click to shrink...

You can be more hyped for something and it can fail to live up to your lowest expectations.

 

[Foot]

Good. Death to gacha.

 

[RochHoch]

You have to fuck up really hard to make a Pokemon Gacha of all things not be a massive success lmao.

 

[Eumi]

The gameplay just isn't fun. I'm not excited to use and collect all my favourite characters when the real time combat just frustrates me.

I just hope it survives long enough that we get to see some fun variants and costumes for trainers like in FEH.

 

[Falchion]

The game is so fucking stingy with its currency that I haven't even touched it in a while.

 

[RecRoulette]

$7m over 3 weeks is fucking insanity for a game like this. Wow

 

[Luckett_X]

Game wasn't and still isn't supported on my Samsung Galaxy S6. I could understand if I had some weird model of phone from an ancient age, but thats a pretty big tentpole of phones to lock out of your Mobile Phone Game.

I installed an APK anyway, and despite some graphical glitches, could experience what little was there. The gacha pulls were just full of absolute unhype fluff, the missions full of meaningless story, and the battle system bizarrely panic inducing due to it having to manage three separate Pokemon in real time. I was impressed that the whole thing felt almost fully voice acted though which makes a change from GameFreak's scrimping.

 

[Dwebble]

I didn't mind the story content, but there's nothing there after that, and the gacha feels grimy- being presented with harsh, paid-only pulls right out of the gate isn't a good experience.

I only really had any fun after the apology gems, which is a pretty sad indictment of how unentertaining the core loop is.

 

[VeryBerryPunch]

I can't even bother finishing the story chapters. I'm not enjoying the gameplay enough to care about this game.

 

[Joni]

So, in the end, luck that DeNa is scared of Belgium.

 

[Shoichi]

I'd have more fun if there was pvp.

I played it but I also enjoy playing games where I can challenge others when it comes to mobile games.

I've gone back to my game of choice (Hearthstone).

If they have a big update where they fix the currency issue and add PVP along with other issues I would probably come back

 

[Aranjah]

As much as it pained me to ignore a Pokemon game, I avoided this one out of the gate because it seemed like pure gacha and I hate that "genre".

I expected it to do a lot better among the typical mobile game audience, though, so this is surprising.

 

[Heromanz]

But some posters here told me they were more hyped for Pokémon Masters than Sword/Shield, how is that possible? 🤔

Click to shrink...

Is this for real?

 

[Deleted member 8593]

I thought the game would be more successful before launch but it simply wasn't very fun to play, stingy gatcha mechanics aside. If the core gameplay loop can't keep people engaged, they won't spend money on it, simple as that.

 

[yungronny]

The concept of playing as specific trainers with their pokemon is awesome but the game is boring as shit.

 

[Pancracio17]

Play dragalia lost its way better

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

The story and combat is fun and the presentation is gorgeous. I also liked the deep cuts for some of the included trainers.
That said, the endgame is utterly boring, free currency trickles in slower than molasses, and rewards in general are abysmal.

 

[Hucast]

But some posters here told me they were more hyped for Pokémon Masters than Sword/Shield, how is that possible? 🤔

Click to shrink...

lol

 

[Kouriozan]

I'm surprised DeNa made a bad game after all their gacha experience.
I lost will to play after the first week, when the content and reward proved to be awful, but I logged in daily in case it gets better.
One month later I uninstalled, even doing the dailies proved to be a chore, and there is no sign things are going to change soon.

Play dragalia lost its way better

Click to shrink...

Nintendo PLEASE RELEASE IT IN EUROPE thank you.

 

[Deleted member 48434]

So even the power of waifus has failed.

 

[Kyari]

There's just so little to do once you beat the story. The end game is shallow and the roll out of new characters is painful.

 

[RelaxItsJustMe]

I personally thought this game was destined to succeed. It had everything going for it pre(soft)launch and with the Pokemon name attached to it, they'd have to royally mess up a lot of things for it to fail. Too bad they messed up a lot of things.

 

[hurroocane]

I don't have a lot of experience with gacha games but the prices just seem too high. Maybe those prices are the norm but paying 3 € for one pull which has a good chance to be a dud or a dupe is way above my impulse buying threshold for something like that.

 

[Apollo]

I love Pokémon, and I love gachas. This came out at a time when I was desperately looking for a new gacha to add to my rotation. I dropped it in less than a week, it was that awful. Worthless login bonuses, a terrible pulling experience, tedious tedious gameplay... just a miserable game that left me with no desire to login. And that kills me because a legit Pokémon gacha is the easiest possible sell for me.

 

[Iori Fuyusaka]

Garbage monetization.

Free and paid gems, where paid gems are the only thing eligible for discounts/deals/bonuses.

Uninstalled it very quickly.

 

[Acidote]

I certainly told my brothers they shouldn't download or let my nephews download it (or any other gacha game).

 

[ClickyCal']

Is this for real?

Click to shrink...

Yea, but mostly all people being dramatic because of dexit. People even said masters has a better engine and graphics.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Told y'all Pokemon was a fad.

 

[brinstar]

Lusamine will save it

 

[J-Tier]

I actively dislike the game. It is incredibly stingy.

 

[Buff DrinkLots]

I've uninstalled. It's not fun.

 

[lovecatt]

the core gameplay is terrible & the auto battle ai sucks

 

[Kain]

Good riddance, the game's content lasts a few hours then it's grinding terrible mp battles. I uninstalled a week ago and don't plan on coming back

 

[pokéfan]

I stopped playing after 3 days, just a very bad Pokemon game.

 

[Renteka-Bond]

Stingy with Gems and an uninteresting, tedious gameplay loop (either you win everytime or you lose everytime). Lame story.

My friends and I binged through the story on release weekend, then the endgame grind started to present itself and I noped out. Just the grind to make one unit decent was a tedious affair in autobattling boredom. No way I'm going to try to stay competitive in that system.

AFK Arena, which I started earlier this week, has been way better in pretty much everyway and just plays itself from jump. Maybe I'm more cool with it now after playing Teamfight Tactics, but the autoplay style, when the game is designed around it, is very appealing.

 

[ZangBa]

I wanted to play it but it doesn't support 32bit.

 

[Kirbivore]

Console/handheld spin offs died for this

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

Is this for real?

Click to shrink...

Yes. Im sure they felt enlightened at the time.
Maybe the same people who thought that Chinese bootleg game looked better.

 

[Sleve McDichael]

I played it for about 20 minutes. Didn't have any fun.
Even if they fix all the issues people are having with it, I don't see myself giving it another try.