Niantic has doubled the cost of the ticket for the monthly Community Day, causing an uproar among players worldwide. Previously, the ticket was priced at $0.99 USD, but now it will cost players $1.99 USD, starting from the January Community Day 2025.

This ticket grants players access to exclusive Special Research tasks related to the main Pokémon of the Community Day event, offering various rewards such as Pokémon encounters, items, and rare in-game bonuses.

While the price increase may seem insignificant to casual players, it has sparked heated discussions on various forums and social media, particularly on Reddit and Twitter, regarding Pokémon Go, where many fans express frustration over the rising costs of in-game content. Here’s how players are reacting to the price increase:

“Doubling the price for the same mediocre Special Research tasks is absurd”, wrote one Reddit user.

“I’m a day-one player who played until about 2021. Returned to the game this summer and played for a few months but realized that almost everything is now locked behind a paywall. You can't find anything valuable in the environment anymore—everything requires payments to play...”, writes user mojo276.

“These tickets are not worth purchasing and add nothing new to the game. It’s basically just a way to extract more money...”, noted SaraAB87.

In our view, Pokémon Go has intensified its monetization strategy in recent months due to a decrease in the number of regular players and a decline in new player influx. Thus, the developers are trying to increase their profits by raising the prices of certain in-game purchases, including the Community Day ticket.

Despite the price increase, the Community Day ticket will continue to offer:

• Special Research tasks dedicated to the Pokémon of the month
  
  
• Bonus encounters with the Pokémon and its evolved forms
  
  
• Stardust—items and other in-game rewards

Niantic has not yet confirmed whether additional perks will be added to future Community Day tickets to justify the increased price.