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Pokémon Sleep, the sleep-tracking app where you can catch 'em all by catching Zs, has reportedly brought in an impressive $100 million in its first year (thanks, VGC).
This is according to AppMagic data recently published by PocketGamer.Biz which reports that the lion's share of the revenue has come from users in Japan, who have spent an estimated $73 million on the app since it launched on 17th July last year. The remaining funds have come from users in the US ($17m) and Taiwan ($4m), AppMagic's data continues.
As you might expect, in-app spending increased during Pokémon Sleep event periods such as the Raikou Research event (revealed in the February 2024 Pokémon Presents showcase) or seasonal celebrations. A Holiday 2023 event was reportedly the app's highest-earning week to date, with a sweet $4 million being tucked in over the seven days.
The AppMagic data reports that Pokémon Sleep has pulled in an estimated 9.8 million downloads in the last year, 44% of which came from Japan (North America followed in second with 17% and Taiwan again landed in third with 7%).
Of course, this is small potatoes when compared to the beefy $1 billion-per-year takings that we have previously seen from Pokémon GO, but $100m is nothing to be scoffed at — particularly for a sleep-tracking app.
As it builds up to its birthday celebrations, a 'gift week' is currently underway in Pokémon Sleep where you can pick up bonus Sleep Points for logging in daily. More information on the app's first-anniversary event is expected to be shared by the @PokemonSleep Twitter later today.
Have you taken Pokémon Sleep for a spin yet? Let us know in the comments.
[source pocketgamer.biz, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 32
Reading about this game puts me to sleep.
That's insane. I haven't heard anybody talk about this game since it released. Pokémon could make anything a financial success.
And this is why the pokemon company never has to try on any project. Because everything they crank out just rakes in the money.
Playstation right now scrambling to make a Horizon: Zero Sleep app*
*or Horizon: Forbidden Rest
This game is a sleeper hit
Pokemon Sleep made $ 100 Million
Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) : HOLD MY ROSE!
@mariomaster96 underrated comment
It's a neat little idle gacha game that uses sleep data, it's novel enough and the fun is just in improving your day-by-day gains, but also trying to improve your sleeping habits.
The monetisation model is weird, though. You have a premium subscription model, and diamonds as a premium in-game currency which you can also slowly earn through sleep and play.
The in-game purchases that use diamonds are basically not worth it compared to what you can get through sleep points, and the premium subscription virtually doubles the sleep points you earn and is the far, far better proposition.
The game by its own design works as a completely free to play experience, and the devs clearly have some use for all that sleep data they're collecting. Presumably just sleep studies, but also a general study of user analytics.
The amount of revenue coming from Japan is insane and really puts things into perspective. I think the bulk of users on this website are American or European, so our perspective is skewed on Pokémon’s popularity. Because I personally have not seen a lot of people talking about Pokemon sleep but the American number for revenue is fairly low, so it makes sense. But clearly Pokemon is still a massive hit in Japan if even a sleep app can bring in that kind of revenue.
I installed it when it came out, found out I had to have my phone laying on the bed next to me all night, and uninstalled it.
So when the article mentions the 'Raiku Research' event, is that meant to be Raikou, the legendary Pokemon or something specific to this game? Not trying to nitpick, just curious.
@K1LLEGAL Brilliant. Maybe Valve will follow suit and make a Half-Awake game. More likely than Half-Life 3 anyways. 😛
I knew the app was more popular than it looked like - it's Pokémon after all -, but I still didn't expect it to make that much money in its first year based on its weird monetization as @RupeeClock also mentioned.
By the way @JimNorman, there's a typo, "Raiku" instead of "Raikou".
Pokemon now dictates how you walk, brush your teeth, and sleep. What's next, Pokemon bathtub?
@JohnnyMind Excellent spot, thank you!
@Axecon my money’s on Pokemon poop, the daily poop habit tracker
Why are they collecting this data? It is to give AI dreams? So that it can take over?
Do Robots dream of Electric Wooloo?
@mariomaster96 That's not funny. Not anymore!
Seriously, how did this thing make money?!?!?!?!?!?!?
@JohnnyMind
It's not like the game doesn't give you the option to spend excessively and irresponsibly.
There's an option to buy 7000 diamonds for $97.99 / £80.99 / €97.99.
That's enough to buy 46 incenses, which are stats boosters for doubled Pokémon EXP / Research EXP / Dream Shard gains after sleep.
You can use two incenses per nights, it's about a month's worth when mixing in other free incenses you can get through play.
The economy of that is weird, though.
Only your five active Pokémon can gain EXP through sleep, otherwise you power up Pokémon by feeding them candy and spending dream shards.
One candy is equivalent to 25 EXP, and there's multiple ways to earn candy which generally makes this the fastest way to level up Pokémon beyond what sleeping can do.
I came for the puns. This comment section did not disappoint.
This is one of those games you CAN sleep on.
I guess I've slept on this game long enough, so I may have to check it out.
Everything is much too obscenely expensive to justify spending real money on, especially the plethora of single-use consumables.
Expanding inventory storage is fairly priced though, weirdly enough, but the game is generous enough with diamonds that you wouldn't need to spend real money on that anyway.
It's a glorified alarm clock slash collect-a-thon. I think a one-time purchase to unlock unlimited sleep data would have been more reasonable as I'm certainly not going to pay for a ludicrously overpriced subscription.
And on the topic of Pokémon apps, I've only just recently upgraded my relatively ancient phone, and I went a little crazy with Pokémon Go and bought the max amount of coins (twice!) so that I can make up for lost time and permanently expand my Pokémon/item inventories (as it's been years since I had last played it). I'm at a point where the odd gym coins should suffice... for now, but I rationalised buying so many coins as the cost of travelling would easily exceed what I have spent on coins anyway.
The Poké Ball Plus that came with Let's Go is also a godsend for spinning PokéStops without having to press a button, and I've finally made use of its charger accessory as well (which I use solely to keep the ball in place in my car's cup holder, rather than for its intended purpose 😅).
@Axecon
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Sounds like a game for a more mature audience.
I wonder if they count the purchases of the Pokemon go plus + accessories towards this number.
I’ve been using Pokemon sleep daily for a year now, but I haven’t really found the microtransactions attractive in any way: as usual with non-Go Pokemon free-to-play games, the in-app purchases are expensive and provide very little value.
However I DID buy the accessory.
Any surprise that this game made so much money means we haven’t been shouting enough from the rooftops that it’s the most well crafted Pokémon mobile game to date. From the creators of the other real mobile gem, Magikarp Jump. And yes I’m including Go in that calculation.
It’s a slight surprise only given that the monetization in the game is so subdued, and it’s easy to play totally free. Still, the FTP model is always worth critique. Most of that $100 million no doubt comes from a small group of Sleep “whales” who may face addiction, which is sad to think about.
I really don't understand how it works
@K1LLEGAL For real?
@TrueFace At least it wasn't an electric/water type
Kids love fart noise apps.
Pokemon: Fart
Unique fart noises for over 1,000 Pokemon.
It would make a billion dollars in a week.
I play this game every day. Really hope they will increase the level cap soon as I've been at max research level for months, as well some of my Pokémon are stuck at 55. I want them to up the cap to 60 so I can unlock more ingredients on some of my Pokémon.
Just using some basic, back of a napkin math and simply economic principles.
80% of people never buy anything, of the 20% that do, 80% only ever make a single small spend, like a single month of sleep pass.
That means 400,000 people need to make up $80 million. So the "mean" spending by people who have made more then one transaction in this game is $200. It also stands to reason, based on spending distribution models for online games, that over 80,000 people have spent more then $1000 on this game.
If you ever needed an argument about wealth gap, there you have it.
Does Sableye take their money while they sleep?!
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