Mobilegamer.biz has published a listing of the top grossing mobile games for the month of April 2023, revealing that the ever popular Pokemon GO has hit a bit of a speed bump.

The list, which is based off data from Appmagic, puts the mobile game spin-off at the 12th highest-grossing mobile game worldwide for April 2023. Although still impressive, Mobilegamer.biz notes that this is actually the latest drop in a downward trend for the app’s earnings, from $58 million in February 2023, to $42.8 million in March 2023, and now $34.7 million in April. This is almost a 40% drop in revenue and has resulted in the lowest monthly earnings for the app since February 2018, five years ago.

Although we can only speculate, it is believed that this severe drop in earnings is due to some controversial changes that Niantic made to the app recently. These changes revolved around the Remote Raid Pass, a feature that allowed players to participate in Raid Battles without leaving their home. Niantic has been steadily making this pass less and less accessible to players by raising its price, as well as limiting the number that can be used each day. Niantic reportedly did this for “preserving and improving the unique experience of playing Pokémon Go” due to remote raids becoming a dominant way to play the game.

Many Pokemon GO players took issue with these changes, as they would make the game less accessible to those who had difficulty leaving their homes due to disabilities or other circumstances. The widespread outcry took the form of a “Hear Us Niantic” hashtag trending on social media, with many participants vowing to go “free to play” and not spend any money on the game. It seems likely that this campaign contributed greatly to the drop in revenue for the game seen in the past few months.

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