Are non-gamers also using it? Usage trends of the new sleep app Pokémon Sleep

Pokémon Sleep is an app that measures and records your sleep, tracking the time it takes for you to fall asleep and the amount of time you sleep. Furthermore, since it can record data while you are sleeping, you can check any sleep talking and environmental sounds that occur, and it also includes the ability to set background music for sleeping and alarms. In addition, it is supervised by Masashi Yanagisawa, an influential sleep researcher, and articles about sleep are also posted on the official website.
Source: https://www.pokemonsleep.net/science/

From the information provided so far, you may think that it is not much different from existing sleep-tracking apps. However, the biggest feature of Pokémon Sleep is that it is a game app.

Sleep data records three different levels of depth: “sleep,” “drowsy,” and “soothing.” When the user wakes up and finishes measuring their sleep, they can check which Pokémon that appears based on the quality or level of the sleep. The main purpose of this app is to record the sleeping state of all Pokémon and complete the "Sleeping Face Book." You can also have the Pokémon you collect into a group of friends, so you can enjoy sleeping using your favorite Pokémon.

Also, in order to record more Pokémon, you need to raise a Pokémon called Snorlax. Snorlax grows significantly based on the score depending on the regularity and length of the user’s sleep time, so it is a system in which a user's good sleep is directly linked to collecting a lot of Pokémon.

In addition, Snorlax grows by feeding it during the day, so it is not a kind of idle game, but has participatory elements, such as opening the game app frequently and collecting food using the unique skills of the Pokémon you have, possibly a reason for increasing the number of people who are passionate about it.

When I actually used it, I felt that I was able to fall asleep more smoothly by reducing the amount of time I spent fiddling with my smartphone before going to bed, since the measurement may be interrupted if you use another app during measurement. Also, if you forget to measure your sleep or sleep for a short amount of time, your Pokémon friends will not recover their energy and will appear sleepy on the app, making you feel guilty and motivate you to get proper sleep and measure your sleep.

Also, when I interviewed VALUES employees, I heard that the higher the Pokémon's remaining health, the more efficiently they can help Snorlax grow, so some say they sleep to let their Pokémon recover as much as possible. It can be said that the system is designed to encourage people who don’t get much sleep hours to get more sleep and to encourage people who don't to sleep longer.

Recently, attention has been focused on improving the quality of sleep, with Yakult 1000 attracting attention with various sleep tech being developed. Pokémon Sleep is a sleep game app that makes you look forward to waking up in the morning. "Pokémon Sleep" is a game that is not only useful while sleeping, but is most enjoyable when you are awake, making it a revolutionary sleep app.

Now, let's take a closer look at Pokémon Sleep's user attributes. For analysis, we will use VALUES’ online behavioral analytics tool “Dockpit,” which allows you to analyze competitors’ websites and investigate trends using behavioral data updated every month, all within your browser.

First of all, the number of Pokémon Sleep users is 4,020,000 (May - July 2023). Even though the release date was July 20, 2023, you can see that a large number of users are already using it.

Next, let's take a look at how frequently the app is launched. It can be seen that approximately 26% of users have been active for 6 to 10 days, and approximately 20% have been active for 11 to 15 days.

Again, the release date of Pokémon Sleep was July 20, 2023, so there are only 12 days left in July in which it was possible to launch the Pokémon Sleep app. In other words, nearly half of all users have been using Pokémon Sleep every day since its release, and it can be said that it has a high degree of attention and continuity.

Next, let's take a look at the time of day when Pokémon Sleep is used. The usage rate drops to around 50% between 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM, but then rises at 12:00 PM to about 37%. After that, it started to rise from 6:00 PM and exceeded 40% again from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM.

Pokémon Sleep is activated before going to bed at night and used again when waking up in the morning, so it can be seen that it is used mostly at night and in the morning. Also, since Snorlax can be fed three times a day--morning, noon and night--it is thought that more people will use the app at 12 noon to feed it for lunch.

Next, let's look at user attributes. Approximately 60% of respondents were female, with 45% in their 20s and 27% in their 30s. From this, we can see that users are mostly young people, and there are more women.

Furthermore, in order to investigate the characteristics of Pokémon Sleep users, we will look at what kinds of apps they are interested in by gender.

First, let's look at males. Game apps are ranked 6th, 7th, 10th, 14th, 17th, and 20th, including Pokémon GO in 2nd place. In addition, 1st place Discord is a voice chat app for gamers, 9th place Pokémon HOME is an app that allows you to exchange Pokémon between games of the past Pokémon series, and 13th place is Twitch. Nintendo Switch Online, ranked 18th, is a platform where gaming footage is livestreamed and is an app that connects your Nintendo Switch to the Internet and allows you to interact with users who have registered as friends. As you can see, game-related apps accounted for 11 out of 20 places in the ranking, and it is thought that male users who are originally interested in games are starting to use Pokémon Sleep.

Also, in 8th place is Threads, which was released in July 2023 and attracted attention as a similar app for X (formerly Twitter), and it is thought that there are many users who like new things.

Next up are female users. Similar to men, Pokémon GO, Discord, and Nintendo Switch Online ranked 2nd, 7th, and 11th, respectively, and game apps ranked 8th, 10th, 12th, and 14th, and game apps ranked 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, and 20th place. Compared to men, there are fewer game-related apps ranked in the rankings, and the difference in reach between them is also small, so it can be said that no one like games as men do. Since the percentage of female Pokémon Sleep users was high, it seems likely that many women who do not usually play games are using it.

Also, like men, Threads is ranked 16th, indicating that there are a certain number of users who like new things.

Furthermore, the table below shows the feature values of the official Pokémon app. More than 20% of users of existing apps use Pokémon Sleep, which shows that there is a certain number of users who actively use Pokémon-related apps.

Here, we will compare Pokémon GO and Pokémon Sleep, which have the most users among Pokémon-related apps.

First, let's look at the number of users. If we focus on July 2023, the number Pokémon Sleep users is 4,020,000, and the number of users of Pokémon GO is 3,720,000, with Pokémon Sleep having a higher number of users.

Next is user attributes. While 60% of Pokémon Sleep users are female, Pokémon GO has a male to female ratio of approximately 1:1, which is almost the same as the male to female ratio among Internet users. Regarding age groups, Pokémon Sleep is played by people in their 20s, who account for about 45%, but Pokémon GO is played by people in their 20s, who account for only about 28%, and those in their 40s to 60s together account for about 43%.

From this, we can see that attributes of Pokémon GO users are closer to those of the average Internet user and is used by users of various demographics, while Pokémon Sleep has a higher proportion of women and young people.

Next, we compare the other apps of interest. Firstly, Pokémon Sleep has a large number of users and many of them also use apps that are widely popular.

On the other hand, for Pokémon GO users, three game apps are ranked: LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum in 6th place, Monster Strike in 9th place, and Yo-Kai Watch Wibble Wobble in 16th place. Also, since you can also see game-related apps such as the aforementioned Pokémon HOME and Discord, there may be many users interested in games rather than Pokémon Sleep.

Finally, we will look at the combined used of Pokémon GO and Pokémon. About 25% of Pokémon Sleep users use Pokémon GO, about 27% of Pokémon GO users use Pokémon Sleep, and about a quarter of people use both apps.

In this research, we investigated the user attributes of Pokémon Sleep users. Even though it was just released, there were quite a lot of users, which shows that the level of attention surrounding it was quite high. In addition, although many Pokémon Sleep users are young people and women, it is thought that there are many male users who are already familiar with Pokémon and game content. In addition, when looking at the apps that people are interested in, it seems that there are a lot of users who don't usually play games, so it's not only people who like Pokémon games, but a variety of people are interested and using it.

It will be interesting to see what kind of people continue to use Pokémon Sleep, which is an innovative game unlike anything before.

▼Data from Dockpit was used in this case study. Dockpit is an online behavior analytics tool provided by VALUES, Inc., and it allows you to access online behavioral data (updated monthly) via your browser so you can research competitor websites and investigate trends. There is a FREE version of Dockpit, so if you are interested in using it, please register below.