Pokémon Masters EX turns five: Lessons from an IP and monetisation masterpiece

• Pokémon Masters EX celebrates five years with new Arc Fair characters which are harder to obtain than ever…
• DeNA’s Pokémon spinoff has earned the second-highest revenue of all the franchise’s mobile titles

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Mobile gacha game Pokémon Masters EX is celebrating half a decade in style with powerful new characters, plenty of limited-time events, a brand-new story campaign and, of course, myriad reasons to spend.

Now with five years to its name, Masters has securely positioned itself as The Pokémon Company’s second-biggest mobile game and although vastly overshadowed by Niantic’s AR phenomenon Pokémon Go, has more than earned its own spotlight.

Five years is a long time, after all, especially in an industry as fast-paced as mobile games; and since 2019, developer DeNA has evolved Masters from an RPG character collector into a multifaceted love letter to the entire Pokémon franchise, marrying 28 years of brand nostalgia, original innovations and a whole heap of monetisation tactics.

Appealing to Pokémon players everywhere

At its core, Pokémon Masters is built around three-on-three battles borrowing from classic RPG tropes, with the Pokémon themselves classified by roles like Striker, Tech and Support. Naturally, these roles dictate particular attributes and most proficient teams will strike a balance of abilities.

While much of this is standard fare for RPGs and even other Pokémon games, Masters differentiates itself from its sister titles by focusing not only on the fantastical Pokémon themselves, but on their human partners.

This means that rather than giving players wild Pokémon to catch and train where they please, DeNA introduces Sync Pairs as human characters with a specific Pokémon companion.

This ingenious move has been at the core of Masters’ identity from day one and adds a key layer to incentivising fan engagement with the gacha – encouraging spending on a Sync Pair if they like the Pokémon involved or the associated human character.

And when a fan-favourite character is paired up with a beloved Pokémon? That’s the type of Sync Pair anniversaries are made for…

A legacy continued

Dating back to 1996, Pokémon has decades’ worth of popular characters for Masters to draw inspiration from, whether that’s the very first player character Red, the latest Switch games’ energetic rival Nemona, or even anime icon Ash Ketchum.

This opens up countless opportunities for interactions between characters who would never otherwise meet, decades apart in the main series and based in their own corners of the Pokémon world. As a result, Pokémon Masters has developed its own lore-broadening post-game amalgamation through the years, bringing closure to previously unresolved plot threads and sparking new dynamics between characters.

Needless to say, this gives veterans and superfans a strong incentive to engage with every story event, and to spend on the gacha to build teams of three from their favourites.

DeNA also showed an immediate understanding of who the fan favourites are, cashing in on main series legends like Red and Charizard for the first half-year anniversary, appealing to newer fans with N and Lillie during year two, and developing the big bad villains of the main series through a years-long Villain Arc.

Of course, DeNA has given those most popular characters plenty of alts too, designing new outfits to resell favourites with different Pokémon, often fitting a seasonal theme.

Sometimes those Pokémon even Mega Evolve – transforming into a powered-up form with new attributes and abilities; it’s another fan-favourite element from the franchise but hasn’t appeared in main series games since 2018, yet here Masters is keeping it alive and prevalent six years after the fact.

DeNA has even implemented Dynamaxing, a battle mechanic from Switch games Sword and Shield that unlock temporary access to a jumbo-sized form and special moves; this is a feature Pokémon Go is only just figuring out, while Masters already implemented it three years ago.

It’s clear from a glance that DeNA holds its source material in high regard, and has earned its millions through respecting Pokémon’s legacy while not shying away from trying new things.

Splashing the cash

According to AppMagic data, Pokémon Masters has generated $335.7 million in gross revenue over the past five years, far behind Pokémon Go’s $8 billion but safely ahead of Unite’s $83 million.

Unlike Go and Unite, the data indicates that Pokémon Masters’ biggest market is in Japan, with 50% of player spending taking place in its home territory. The US follows in second at 25%, having less of an impact on Masters’ revenue than it does on Go and Unite.

Like many mobile gachas, Pokémon Masters’ earnings have accumulated through peaks and troughs largely dependent on when new characters debut, encouraging players to spend premium currency immediately on the latest addition, then play with them until the next.

And while daily revenues have never again come close to the heights of its launch period, peaking at $2.5 million on August 30th, 2019, that trend of rises and falls has clearly persisted over the years.

Looking at monthly revenue, meanwhile, April 2020 was the game’s lowpoint with only $1.1 million generated over 30 days.

It’s apparent that from there, DeNA implemented many new strategies to keep the game afloat – which have ultimately paid off as it continues to make millions four years later.

EX-tra incentives

In the months that followed that April 2020 low, DeNA introduced a stamina system which gated players from endless grinding, shifted from free distributions of popular Legendary Pokémon to making them a time-limited part of the gacha, and implemented the EX mechanic – rewarding players with rare materials to upgrade Sync Pairs further after scouting so many times on the gacha.

The importance of this new upgrade feature is reflected in the game’s name change, rebranded to Pokémon Masters EX at that time.

Fast-forward to July 2024, and Masters made close to $2 million for the month, almost double that April 2020 figure despite the industry-wide post-pandemic slump, and demonstrating sustainability resulting from changed tactics.

One core change is to the gacha itself, as DeNA has introduced various banner types with different rates for new characters, with fewer and fewer joining the general pool after their banners end. This means many characters must be obtained within their debut window, or else players must wait an unspecific length of time – sometimes years – before they become available again.

The odds of obtaining a featured pair were initially 3% per pull, with a spark system guaranteeing players’ ability to acquire them after so many attempts; it’s a failsafe not all gachas have, and reflects Pokémon’s child-friendly brand in assuring players will get their favourite eventually – provided they have enough premium currency.

However, for the fifth anniversary, a new banner type called an Arc Fair has debuted, with only a 1% pull rate for the featured Sync Pair and a longer marathon to that guarantee, requiring a record amount of premium currency to reach.

This change may not be the way fans were hoping to celebrate the half-decade milestone, but is already reflecting well on Masters’ earnings.

With the release of the first-ever Arc Fair character Cynthia on August 28th, daily revenue reached its highest peak of 2024 at $520,000.

This easily broke the year’s previous record of $346,000 earned on March 1st, when Silver and Tyranitar released as part of the 4.5-year anniversary.

Cynthia’s strong performance is likely a culmination of her own popularity, the fan-favourite status of her Pokémon Garchomp, and the extra player spending required to guarantee obtaining them.

Not only that, but players need to obtain her five times at that 1% rate to reach her full potential, or else grind for some of the rarest resources in the game to make up for missing dupes. All of a sudden, Masters sounds slightly less child-friendly…

Two more Arc Fairs are due to follow in the coming days featuring Lance and Steven. Together with Cynthia, the trio were actually the very first characters shown in Masters’ 2019 reveal trailer. They all originally appeared in-game within Masters’ first year, but their new alts are far more powerful with different costumes and abilities.

Evolution revolution

As for how the next two Arc Fairs perform, only time will tell. For now, five years marks a good time to reflect on all the changes DeNA has made to this love letter to Pokémon, even if the necessary evolution to monetisation is a bitter pill to swallow for some players.

With a new story arc just starting, it’s clear that DeNA still has big plans for Pokémon Masters EX, and as long as the developer can continue to find innovative ways to monetise players, this gacha game may keep on earnings millions for many more years to come.