When The Pokemon Company's cloud storage service Pokemon Home was released, many were quickly drawn in by Professor Grand Oak's interesting fashion sense. The allure of being able to transfer Pokemon from the Game Boy Advance era up to Sword and Shield on the Nintendo Switch is nothing to scoff at either, and in just one week over a million people had the mobile phone application downloaded according to market analyst Sensor Tower.
Pokemon Home is the most recent version of software allowing long-time trainers to store their vast collection, following up the GameCube's Pokemon Box and the 3DS's Pokemon Bank. In an article released Thursday Sensor Tower said that the United States accounted for 34 percent of the over 1.3 million global downloads on mobile devices, while Japan was second with 23 percent.
No doubt one of the reasons for this companion software's success is the already huge base of Sword and Shield players looking for more box space, as the Switch games passed 16 million sales last month. However, Pokemon Home on mobile in particular has a large appeal because of the different services it provides compared to the Switch version on its own.
While both versions give players the National Pokedex and the ability to transfer Pokemon to-and-from both Sword and Shield as well as Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee, only the mobile version can access an array of trading services like the GTS. Sensor Tower also says the application has already drawn in about $1.8 million, as the premium subscription that opens up everything costs $15.99 a year.
That said, Pokemon Home still has not reached its full potential considering Pokemon GO connectivity is slated to come sometime in the future. With how different Niantic's mobile juggernaut is from the main series titles in terms of calculating stats for Pokemon, it makes sense that more time was needed to figure out how to handle the transferring system.
There was some early turmoil with Pokemon Home users experiencing crashes and glitches, but many of those concerns seem to have been ironed out. Now the Internet has been flooded with people sharing photos of their beloved old shiny Pokemon, and with the upcoming expansion pass for Sword and Shield adding in more creatures it's likely the service's traffic will only increase from here.
Pokemon Home is now available for the Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.
Source: Sensor Tower
