The most recent Pokémon Go event, created to celebrate the Lunar New Year, was not active during its first 24 hours. Released on July 6, 2016, Niantic’s augmented reality title quickly became a mobile game phenomenon.
Pokémon Go managed to beat two Guinness records as the most downloaded and grossing mobile game during its first month of availability. After a noticeable revenue drop in 2017, chiefly caused by a lack of new content, Niantic revamped the title, adding plenty of features - including trading. In 2019, Pokémon Go saw record profits and the confirmation it was here to stay. Last October, analytics firm SensorTower reported that the mobile game surpassed an impressive $3 billion lifetime revenue.
The Silph Road reports that Pokémon Go’s Lunar New Year Event, which started on January 24 and will be available until February 3, had a rough start. According to the community-driven research website, one of the key features of the event, an increased chance to get Lucky Pokémon through trades, wasn’t active during the first 24 hours since release. Silph Road’s researchers completed 1,413 Pokémon trades in that timeframe, and only 72 resulted in getting a Lucky pocket monster. This means that there was a 5.1% chance of getting a Lucky Pokémon, which is not that far from the usual 5% chance. During the 2019 Lunar New Year Event, the researchers reported a 9% chance of getting a Lucky Pokémon. Fortunately, on the second day of the event, Silph Road published an update, backed by research data, saying that the average lucky trade rate had increased to 9.5%.
Lucky Pokémon were introduced in the summer of 2018. They can only be obtained by swapping Pokémon with other trainers. A pocket monster with the Lucky status requires 50% less Stardust, allowing the player to progress in the game faster. Aside from special events, the user can boost the chance of getting a Lucky Pokémon by swapping an older monster or becoming Lucky Friends with another trainer. A player can become Lucky Friends only with their Best Friends, no more than once per day.
The missing chance boost was probably just a mistake, and Niantic was very quick to fix it. However, it may have resulted in some players swapping their beloved Pokémon without getting the desired outcome. Events like the Lunar New Year are vital to keep players interested in Pokémon Go, so it’s highly desirable that Niantic keeps creating more and more of them in the near future.
Next: Pokemon Let’s Go: Complete List of All the Pokemon You Can Ride
Pokémon Go is now available for Android and iOS.
Source: The Silph Road
