A new flow of Location Based Service mobile games: Non-stickiness on Pokémon Go

• Published in: Computers in human behavior Vol. 89; pp. 182 - 190
• Main Authors: Chen, Chiao-Shan, Lu, Hsi-Peng, Luor, Tainyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elmsford Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Computer & video games; Flow; Location based service (LBS); Location based services; Mobile games; Model testing; Pokémon go; Serendipity; Surveying; Uses and gratifications (U & G); Serendipity; Pokémon go; Location based service (LBS); Mobile games; Flow; Uses and gratifications (U & G)
• ISSN: 0747-5632; 1873-7692
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2018.07.023

Upon its release in July 2016, Pokémon Go, a Location Based Service game achieved astonishing popularity and became one of the world's most widely played mobile games. However, this wave of popularity soon peaked and the user base quickly lost interest. This study examines the lack of stickiness of the Pokémon Go application over time. The research model hypothesizes that intrinsic motivation, network externalities, and serendipity influence application stickiness, mediated by flow and user gratification. After surveying 600 samples, this proposed model was tested with a structural equation modeling approach. Unlike previous studies, the results reveal that gratification plays a more important role than flow in retaining users. Furthermore, over time the impact of network externalities and intrinsic motivation gradually disappeared, leaving only a weak serendipity-gratification-stickiness relationship. These findings might explain the game's drop off in popularity. •Gratification is a more important factor than Flow to predict Stickiness.•The correlation between Flow and Stickiness is spurious in this study.•Gratification is a front predictor to Flow and Stickiness.•For average players, all independent variables are important.•For advanced players, only Serendipity is important.