This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers -💀 Pokémon Champions is already DEAD: here’s what went wrong
Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 am conference discussion vibe, so let’s not take it too seriously.
The Team:
Jakub Remiar- Game design consultant
Felix Braberg – Ad monetization consultant
Matej Lančarič – User Acquisition & Creatives consultant
Join our slack channel here: SLACK CHANNEL
-
Unisex oversized hoodie
70,00 € Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
2,5gamers OG hoodie
59,00 € Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Oversized faded t-shirt
40,00 € Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
Denim T-Shirt
32,50 € – 35,50 € Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Summary
Pokémon Champions launched on mobile doing roughly $300-400K/day. Two days later it was collapsing. It’s now around $80K/day and falling — a textbook shark fin from the biggest IP on the planet. We cover the wins on this podcast, but we also cover the failures, and this one is genuinely fascinating.
Matej Lančarič, Jakub Remiar, and Felix Braberg break down what went wrong with Pokémon Champions. The game is essentially Pokémon Stadium (the N64 classic) rebuilt for mobile — a pure battler with no exploration, no gyms, no story, no breeding, no catching Pokémon in the wild. The gacha is neutered into a “pick one of ten” system with no randomness at all. And the killer: Pokémon Home import lets players bring their existing collections straight in from Pokémon Go and other titles, so many players arrived on launch day with everything already unlocked — what Jakub calls “Web3 interoperability in play,” and a total economy destroyer. Monetization is cosmetics, a battle pass, and ranch refresh tickets. That’s it. The crew also contrasts it with the Pokémon apps that genuinely print money (TCG Pocket at ~$15M/month, Pokémon Sleep at ~$150K/day and ~$150M in three years, Pokémon Go spiking on the 30th anniversary), and picks apart the UA: ~300 creatives that are really about 7 concepts, almost all 15-21 seconds, cut from a year-old trailer.
The honest verdict: it’s not a bad game — it’s a fan-service game. It was never designed as free-to-play, and Pokémon is rich enough not to care.
Chapters
00:00 Why we’re covering a failure
02:40 It’s Pokémon Stadium, rebuilt for mobile
07:05 The neutered gacha — pick one of ten
11:26 The shallow monetization: cosmetics and a battle pass
12:30 Pokémon Home import — the economy killer
14:35 The numbers — shark fin, Japan-driven, 16% US
17:06 The Pokémon apps that actually print money
19:59 The creatives — 300 videos, 7 concepts, all too short
