Pokémon TCG Pocket’s huge success prompts developer to double profit forecast
DeNA announced an upward revision of their predicated earnings for the current fiscal year (April 2024 to March 2025) due to significant profit increases in their game sector. This is thanks to the huge success of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket (hereafter Pokémon TCG Pocket), which DeNA co-developed with Creatures Inc.
Pokémon TCG Pocket launched on mobile platforms in October 2024. Since then, the title has racked up over 60 million downloads across 150 countries.
Due to the game’s strong performance, DeNA expects virtual currency consumption (i.e. the total amount of money spent by users on in-game purchases) to more than triple, and sales revenue to more than double in quarter 3 (October to December 2024). To put this in perspective, user spending for quarter 3 is predicted to be over 85 billion yen (up from 23.8 billion in last year’s Q3), of which DeNA will get more than 25 billion in sales revenue (up from 12.7 billion).
Pokémon TCG Pocket is free-to-play but offers paid options like the monthly Premium Pass subscription that gives players exclusive missions, extra booster packs and access to a Premium Shop. Players can also purchase Poké Gold in-game currency to spend on items.
From DeNA’s annual profits forecast, it seems that the monetization of Pokémon TCG Pocket has been successful. It’s interesting to note that before the game was even released, its mere announcement back in February sent DeNA’s stocks skyrocketing to their daily price limit.
