"Is Pokemon GO dying?": Reddit reacts to Sprigatito Community Day Continued Timed Research tasks

Pokemon GO's first Community Day event of 2025 is bringing some changes. Most notably, the timed research for the event now lasts for 7 days. However, each of the missions in this research requires players to complete a single objective on a number of different days. This means that users will need to complete one of these objectives each day of the week.

This sort of forced activity has not gone unnoticed by the playerbase, with user u/Spolidano88 starting a discussion on the Pokemon GO subreddit, expressing that they feel like this sort of mission structure feels like a desperate attempt to revive the game's playerbase:

"Is pokemon go dying?"

Is pokemon go dying? byu/spolidano88 inpokemongo

With this being the first rendition of such a mission structure for Community Day research, many have taken it as Niantic pushing players to play the game as a result of dwindling player numbers. While it is only natural for a mobile game to lose players over time, Pokemon GO has lost a substantial amount of its modern playerbase as a result of controversial changes and updates.

Comment byu/spolidano88 from discussion inpokemongo

U/Crusher016 echoes the thoughts of many users, stating that one of the most controversial changes made to Pokemon GO was the remote raid pass nerf, and the game has only gone downhill ever since. In this nerf, Niantic limited the amount of remote raids that can be completed to five, as well as nearly doubling the price of the item at the in-game shop.

This change was made as a part of a series of updates that incentivized players to leave their homes after the 2020 pandemic so Niantic could collect more location data to sell to advertisers. This can also be seen in many modern gameplay additions to Pokemon GO, like Gigantamax Battles and Shadow Raids, which require players to attend them in-person.

Comment byu/spolidano88 from discussion inpokemongo

u/Cheeriodust brings up a good point with their comment on the original post, mentioning Niantic's other titles. Niantic has also made other geocaching titles in collaboration with properties like Harry Potter, Pikmin, and Monster Hunter, none of which have been as popular as Pokemon GO.

While GO was popular at the time of its release thanks to the promotion from The Pokemon Company, as well as the AR technology, which was quite advanced for the time, the hype has died down over the years. Without the rose-tinted goggles, Pokemon GO seems to be another mobile game that prioritizes monetization over quality.

Many users have shared similar experiences, dropping Pokemon GO thanks to the recent changes (Image via Reddit)

The shift to focus on in-person content seems to be the poison in Pokemon GO's punchbowl at the moment. With many active players having jobs or other daily responsibilities to attend to, making players take time out of their busy schedule to head down to the city park for the chance to meet more players to challenge a Shadow Raid is too time-consuming and intrusive.

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Is Pokemon GO "dying"?

Pokemon GO has likely lost many players since its release (Image via The Pokemon Company)

While many sites may claim that Pokemon GO is on the rise in popularity, with presented numbers allegedly proving it, the actual player numbers for many mobile games is unavailable in most cases. With this in mind, these sites are unreliable.

Knowing this, it is unclear exactly how well Pokemon GO is faring in the player-count department. Given all the controversial changes made and the strong criticism online, it would be safe to assume that the game's height of popularity has come to pass, being kept alive by the most hardcore players, and the game's tie to Pokemon HOME, allowing users to send their creatures to the Nintendo Switch.

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For more information on the game, check out the articles below:

• Ditto disguises
• Sierra counters
• Cliff counters
• Arlo counters
• Giovanni counters
• Team GO Rocket Grunts