Pokemon TCG Pocket Plans Major Overhaul Amid Player Retention Concerns

DeNA has announced plans to overhaul Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s card collection experience due to concerns about retaining existing players. Since its launch, Pokemon TCG Pocket has faced criticism for its card acquisition mechanics, which have apparently affected player retention in recent months.

The game has no pity system, and booster packs appear to distribute cards solely based on RNG. Additionally, its loyalty credit, known as Pack Points, is tied to each set, making it an impractical currency for obtaining rare cards. Citing these issues, along with Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s overwhelming expansion release cadence, many players have either stopped playing or logged in only infrequently.

DeNA Wants to Address Pokemon TCG Pocket Players’ Declining Retention Rate

In a financial report on its Q1 2025 performance, Pokemon TCG Pocket developer DeNA addressed the game’s declining retention rate among existing players. “The retention rate of existing users has declined compared to the initial launch period,” the report states. “Based on this understanding,” the company adds, “[DeNA] is planning and developing a major update.” According to the report, the overhaul will target key gameplay features like the “collection experience” and is set to release before December 31, 2025.

Fans have already made several educated guesses about the upcoming update’s contents and possible release window. Many believe DeNA will likely release the overhaul patch around the game’s first anniversary on October 30. As for the possible changes, some suggest the update will facilitate card-acquisition methods by unifying Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s Pack Points or introducing a soft pity system for Pokemon ex and other chase cards.

Pokemon TCG Pocket‘s most recent major update was the Trading feature overhaul, which took the developer nearly six months to complete. If the next overhaul is as big or even bigger, the predicted October release window may be too optimistic. However, it’s possible DeNA has been working on the collection experience patch for some time and is ready to launch it in the coming months. Either way, it will be interesting to see what tactics the company uses to improve retention and maintain a growing community of digital card collectors.

DeNA’s report reveals that Pokemon TCG Pocket currently has an impressive player base with 39 million monthly active users. By comparison, Genshin Impact, one of the biggest gacha games ever, reached 60 million monthly active users at its peak. The report also shares that 60% of microtransactions in Pokemon TCG Pocket come from players outside Japan, indicating the game’s stronger popularity internationally than domestically. Despite these achievements, DeNA’s digital trading card game faces a significant threat, and the developer appears well aware of the risk of losing much of its player base soon, which is likely why it is already working on a major overhaul.