SANTA MONICA, Calif. — This week several Pokémon players told us they were spending upwards of 3-5 hours a day on the game at the expense of other apps like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram.
Could this be a serious problem for these popular social networks?
Jennifer Cantiller, 22, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles had been spending hours a day on Snapchat.
Now, she said she signs out of her social media accounts to have more space on the phone for Pokémon Go to load. The app is a memory hog that needs all the resources it can get. “Less social media and more Pokémon," she said.
The game, an update on the Pokémon playing cards, TV show and early black and white video game of the 1990s, has taken the nation by storm, mixing augmented reality with modern game play to let players locate and collect characters from the Pokémon world, which appear in real-life locations.
The game has been No. 1 on Apple's iTunes and Google Play's app charts for the last week.
In less than a week since its release, market researcher SurveyMonkey says Go has become the most popular mobile game ever, based on 21 million daily users. That tops the previous winner, Candy Crush Saga, which was cited at 20 million users.
It's been downloaded over 20 million times, according to SensorTower.
The most downloaded mobile game of all time is the Angry Birds series, which maker Rovio says has pulled in over 3.5 billion downloads. The other big one is Candy Crush, which maker King Digital in 2013 said had over 500 million downloads. The company hasn't updated numbers since.
Either way, Go has a long ways to catch up.
Long term, social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram have nothing to worry about—the Go game players will eventually move on to something new, says Mike Vorhaus, an analyst with Frank Magid Associates.
“There will be a small impact,” short term, for the apps, he adds. “I can also see less binging on TV right now for Netflix and Hulu.”
The big question many in techland have been asking this week is how long the Pokémon Go fad can last. Past game smashes like Angry Birds and Candy Crush eventually petered out.
“The real moment of truth is day 30,” says Vorhaus. “In mobile gaming, it’s how many people are still playing on the 30th day. Typically, it’s the first week and month. Well know a lot in 30 days.”
Follow USA TODAY tech columnist and #TalkingTech host Jefferson Graham on Twitter, @jeffersongraham, and listen to the daily podcast on Stitcher and iTunes.
