Pokémon Go developer Niantic lied to claims in April that the game had its worst monthly revenue in five years.
A Niantic spokesperson said in an email Eurogamer:
We generally do not comment on third-party estimates of our revenue because they are often incorrect, which is the case here. Our revenue so far in 2023 is up from last year.
While a report from Mobilegamer. Biz Niantic’s comment lied, claiming that Pokémon Go’s revenue and revenue fell from $42 million last March to just $34.7 million in April which is the game’s lowest monthly revenue since February 2018.
News of Pokémon Go’s declining revenue and Niantic’s denial come as Pokémon Go fans have been criticizing changes to the game’s raid system. Previously, the social distancing and lockdown measures introduced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the creation of remote play features for the game that allowed players to attend raids from the safety of their homes.
This feature has been a boon to many in the community who live in remote areas or have problems that prevent them from commuting easily. However, Niantic recently announced that as of April 6th it was raising the prices of remote raid tickets, and capping the number of in-game events players could attend each day.
This move, which was apparently an attempt to force players to return to the rules of play before the Corona pandemic, caused outrage among many in the game community, which led to a backlash.
