It’s Been Tough

Gen 2 hasn’t been generating enough money for Niantic, and trading might kill the mobile game. Downloads have slowed some. And now it’s been revealed that Pokemon Go was over capacity less than two hours after it launched.

So if anything, Niantic’s Pokemon Go peaked shortly after launch, and has been slowly declining ever since.

The Cause

Once upon a time the Niantic team sat down prior to launch to estimate the number of players they’d have at launch. To play it safe, they handed excessive figures to Google, their hosting provider. Five times the expected number, no less.

When the time came to push the button, everything seemed fine. That is, until a few hours later when they were reaching that crazy download cap they didn’t think would even happen.

Solutions

For the next month, Niantic had to scale their game in order to launch in the States, Europe, Japan, etc. Because remember, the original launch was in Australia and New Zealand.

Yes, they almost reached capacity in just two countries, before even launching everywhere else.

The problem is, Pokemon Go isn’t doing too well anymore. Players complain about events, like Valentine’s Day’s 5-minute being disappointing. There’s speculation that trading might actually lead to black markets. And Niantic is having to dedicate this entire year to improving the game, or else admit defeat.

It’s been a real roller coaster for Niantic Labs.