Pokémon Go has peaked, says Bloomberg News, losing about 10 million users to date from a high of about 45 million.
Moreover, analysts quoted by Bloomberg chart an overall decline in user engagement. Taken together, the data is enough for them to signal to investors that the craze has cooled off from a July that put wild swings into Nintendo's stock price and challenged the biggest social media apps for most-downloaded status.
Axiom Capital Management compiled data from three sources to arrive at a daily active user figure that is a little higher than 30 million as of Aug. 18; that's off a mid-July high of less than 45 million.
Pokémon Go's cooling-off has had an overall impact on the ardor for augmented reality games, where virtual reality interest has remained strong, says Axiom. All of this is part of a note to investors to cool their jets on making next-big-thing decisions.
A month ago, Nintendo's stock price more than doubled from its value before Pokémon Go's launch to its peak on July 19. The company was concerned enough that it sent a message to investors reminding them that it is not Pokémon's sole owner, and the revenue it is seeing from Pokémon Go matches what it has already projected.
Nintendo's stock price today is still about 60 percent over its pre-launch high, and has rebounded to roughly its value at the end of October last year. Pokémon Go Plus a premium peripheral that enhances Pokémon Go's gameplay, has yet to launch; it's due sometime next month.
