Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket is finding it difficult to keep longtime players engaged, according to a recently released earnings report regarding the free-to-play mobile card battler. While Pokemon TCG Pocket was one of the most popular new mobile games of 2024, and it continued that momentum through its first full year, signs of slowdown are starting to show, and developer DeNA is looking for ways to keep players’ attention.
The worldwide launch of Pokemon TCG Pocket at the end of October 2024 took the mobile gaming world by storm, offering players a free, digital version of one of the most popular collectible card games in the world with slightly modified rules. Just a little over a week after its global release, Pokemon TCG Pocket passed a major player milestone, surpassing more than 30 million downloads from players around the world, and that number has ballooned to more than 150 million over the course of roughly a year and a half since that time.
Pokemon TCG Pocket Dethrones Pokemon GO
DeNA’s Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket dethrones Pokemon GO in a key metric, making history just as it celebrates its first anniversary.
Pokemon TCG Pocket is Still Struggling to Retain Longtime Players
But newer reports from DeNA reveal that many players who were around in the game’s early days have since fallen off, which could present challenges for maintaining high Pokemon TCG Pocket player counts as the game makes its way through its second full year. A recently released third-quarter earnings statement from the developer has suggested that monthly active users have been declining despite the game continuing to rack up new downloads. “While new user acquisition remains strong, the retention rate of existing users has declined compared to the launch period, making MAU [monthly active user] maintenance an issue,” an English translation of a portion of the report provided by Nintendo Patents Watch reads. Exact figures have not been provided via the official report, but if the game fails to keep player interest high, it could negatively impact Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s future.
Retention of longtime players seems to be an ongoing trend, considering this isn’t the first time that DeNA has brought it up. An earlier earnings report released a little over six months ago identified a similar problem with monthly active user retention and suggested that major overhauls of Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s card collection system could be implemented to fix the problem. Back in August 2025, a previous official statement from DeNA mentioned a similar decline in player retention and suggested big changes to card collection were likely to arrive within the calendar year. Many fans expected to see these changes implemented during the game’s one-year anniversary event, and its major features of the Deluxe Pack EX and the re-release of Promo Cards delivered on some fronts but were met with mixed reactions from fans.
It sounds as though DeNA has some ideas for improving Pokemon TCG Pocket through future expansions, though the developer is not laying all of its cards on the table. Some of the ideas listed in the report include running more in-game events and promotions, as well as “multi-layered initiatives.” But to many fans, those seem like vague keywords that don’t indicate a clear plan of action, especially considering their feelings that the development team has failed to deliver on the major overhaul of the card collection system that was first announced last summer.
To its credit, DeNA has implemented some changes to the game since that previous report. The release of Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Fantastical Parade expansion, which arrived on January 28, has expanded its collection of Mega Evolution EX cards, giving players more options for incorporating the most powerful Pokemon cards into Psychic, Steel, and Grass-type decks. In addition, the development team has improved the single-player experience of the game, opening up the first round of solo battles against random decks, providing less-predictable quick-play options at four different skill levels. And while many players still have complaints about the card trading system, DeNA has made continued attempts to improve the experience, including the recent addition of letting players leave open messages regarding their trading preferences.
- Released
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October 30, 2024
- Developer(s)
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DeNA, Creatures Inc.
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
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Yes
