Marvel Snap lands new publisher and Pokémon Sleep surpasses $140m | Week in Views

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The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can’t let go of.

So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over, here’s our weekly digest where members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming over the past week.

Marvel Snap secures new publisher Skystone Games after “surprise” takedown

Second Dinner’s Marvel Snap was temporarily removed from US app stores due to the recent TikTok ban, which must have caused all kinds of chaos behind the scenes and financial losses for the studio. Although the takedown may have been brief, the impact of this happening is significant. 

Second Dinner has moved swiftly to secure a new publishing partner by teaming up with Skystone Games, a US-based publisher. The studio is clearly taking steps to protect Marvel Snap from any future disruption related to the current situation that involves Nuverse since it is owned by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. 

This entire station must have been a massive wake-up call that you’re tied to your publisher and any issues they have, may become your issues too. It now appears Second Dinner is looking for greater autonomy by assuming more in-house responsibilities… You can’t really blame them.

While any long-term implications remain to be seen, this move could ultimately grant the studio greater control over the game’s direction. 

Pokémon Sleep snoozes past $140m in time for 1.5 year anniversary

Pokémon Sleep is always an interesting game to discuss as it seems to sail – or perhaps snooze – mostly under the radar. First revealed in 2019, it took until 2023 for the sleep tracker to actually release and make Pokémon that much more prevalent in players’ lives.

It’s been one-and-a-half years since then, and $140 million in player spending later, Sleep finds itself outearning the likes of Tencent MOBA Pokémon Unite on mobile and even spent a time as the platform’s third-biggest Pokémon game – at least until TCG Pocket came along.

Perhaps the reason it’s lesser known in the West, then, is because of just how much more successful it’s been in Japan. Its home country is responsible for contributing 73% of global spend after all, versus the US’s 14% and the UK’s mere 2%.

Spending’s also been slowing down lately, without any new Legendary events to power player interest. Still, perhaps that gives them more time to think about actually sleeping instead of playing Sleep…