There is a piece of unpleasant news for anyone playing Pokémon Go on old phones. Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go, has decided to discontinue support for phones running Android 5 (Lollipop), iOS 10, and iOS 11 in October.
The company has also explicitly mentioned that it is dropping the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, although you can upgrade them to iOS 12. Niantic will discontinue these phones through an update, scheduled to go live sometime in mid-October.
“In an upcoming update to Pokémon GO in October, we will end support for Android 5, iOS 10, and iOS 11, as well as iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 devices. Trainers with devices not specifically listed here will not be affected and don’t need to take any action,” wrote the company in a tweet.
Niantic is primarily dropping support for iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 due to the lack of sufficient hardware resources for efficient gameplay. “iPhone 5S and 6 have just 1 GB of RAM, and we don’t want to hold back development and implementation of features for the vast majority of players who have more robust phones,” Niantic told The Verge.
Pokémon Go might not be as trending as it was a few years back, but the game is still gaining enough traction to stay relevant in the mobile gaming space. With recent updates, the company has managed to keep the user base engaged in the game.
The game’s revenue is also getting decent growth. According to Sensor Tower’s estimates, the game generated $894 million in revenue last year. Moreover, the firm says the game contributed more than $254 million in the second quarter of 2020 despite lockdown restrictions.
