'Pokémon Go' daily active users are slipping, but is the fad over?

The brighter something burns, the quicker it starts to fade. Or in Pokémon terms: the brighter the Charmander's flame, the more likely it is to sputter out.

So may go Pokémon Go, which according to data from one analytics group, may already be starting to become less of a Poké-habit.

The hit mobile app started to see a drop in daily active users on July 14, about a week after the game was released, SurveyMonkey Intelligence said. It saw about 25 million active players in the U.S. that day, and that number has started to decline.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The company also reported the game's peak number of downloads occurred on its U.S. launch day, July 7. The company notes this as a cause for concern, when contrasting the game with other contemporary successful mobile games.

"Most successful apps, including previous record-setting hit games Draw Something and Candy Crush Saga, experience a slow start. These games hit their daily-download peaks some months after initial release," the SurveyMonkey blog states.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

It may be important to note that both those titles didn't come from established intellectual property. Pokémon games have sold 279 million copies since the first were released 20 years ago (according to data from earlier this year.) That doesn't count people who only became fans through the animated show or trading card game, both huge hits in their own right.

This data also only includes U.S. iOS and Android users, and doesn't include the 27 other countries currently playing the game, which just launched in Japan -- the birthplace of Pokémon -- on Friday. There are still plenty of swaths of the globe without Pokémon Go access, including Central and South America, India and the rest of Southeast Asia.

But the game might also not have enough to keep users engaged, thus signaling the drop in daily active users. Niantic itself said a Comic-Con panel this weekend that Pokémon Go only launched with 10 percent of the planned features. Those features include more Gym functionality, customizable PokéStops, Pokémon breeding and inclusion of some legendary creatures. Much of this won't come until the game has launched in more regions and has achieved stability, Niantic said.

One thing that hasn't changed: Pokémon Go has remained at the top of the iOS App Store's Most Downloaded and Highest Grossing rankings in its entire two-and-a-half-week run, according to App Annie data. Its fall from either will be a real indication of a sputtering fad.

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