One of the biggest controversies that plagued the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield was the decision not to include the national Pokédex at launch. Many longtime fans who had grown up training specific Pokémon and transferring them across subsequent games were angry at this exclusion. Future DLC packs featuring new and pre-existing Pokémon hope to remedy this, but many still feel a lingering resentment towards Nintendo and Game Freak for what many believe to be an incomplete game upon release.
However, Nintendo's latest Pokémon mobile app intends to remedy this.
Pokémon Home was released last week for Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android. Similar to Pokémon Bank for the Nintendo 3DS, Home is a companion app that acts as a storage device that allows fans to store Pokémon they have caught and transfer them between various games. The service is compatible with Sword and Shield as well as Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee, with Pokemon Go compatibility set for a future update.
The cloud-based service is available in both free and paid models. While a basic plan is free, a one-month subscription costs $2.99, a three-month subscription costs $5.99 and a premium plan for $15.99 a year, All of these paid plans offer more features including the ability to store an unlimited number of Pokémon. The announcement of this new service was initially been met with skepticism, but those concerns seem to be unfounded, judging by early numbers.
According to SensorTower, Pokémon Home has been downloaded and installed more than 1.3 million times since its release. Of those downloads, the United States and Japan were the biggest markets, which makes sense considering that the U.S. is world's biggest video game market and Japan is where Pokémon is incredibly popular. The United States amassed the most downloads with 444,000, about 34% of overall downloads, with Japan not far behind with 299,000 downloads. Great Britain, Germany and France all had somewhere between 50,000-70,000 downloads apiece.
Despite the franchise's recent troubles, the popularity of a Pokémon mobile app isn't that surprising. Nintendo's apps and mobile games like Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes have a wide-ranging appeal. Pokémon Go was a legitimate cultural phenomenon when it debuted in 2016, and it's generated billions of dollars. Even with its recent controversies, the Pokémon series is still one of the most recognizable, beloved franchises in pop culture, and a companion app to go along with the new series of Pokémon Switch games is still an enticing deal.
While there are still questions about whether or not the early success of Pokémon Home will last, it could end up having a huge impact on the gaming industry. Companion apps for console games aren't anything new, but many of them don't have the potential to impact their home games as much as Pokémon Home does. The early revenue numbers are especially noteworthy, with an estimated $1.8 million generated from those who signed up for the premium plan, According to The Pokémon Company, that represents 94.7% of their mobile revenue since February 12, as SensorTower notes.
As both Pokémon and Nintendo continue to expand into the mobile market, other developers will likely be taking notice and make their own must-have companion apps for their games. If nothing else, Nintendo has finally given Pokémon fans a place to put all of their pocket monsters after telling them to capture them all for years.