Gamers cash in on ‘Pokemon Go’ popularity, sell accounts on eBay
Mobile phenomenon Pokemon Go from the time it was launched on July 6 has taken the whole world by storm. Gamers who are addicted to this game have gone to the extent of using drones and different hacking methods to help speed up their progress in the game. While some gamers have gone beyond this…
Cashing on the popularity of Pokemon Go, there are some gamers who are making quite the profit from their hard earned work of catching and levelling their Pokemon collection. Now, almost two weeks after the game was released, marketplaces like eBay and Craigslist, as well as social sites like Facebook, have become flooded with players offering to sell their accounts featuring rare and high-level Pokemon for more than $100.
What is more astonishing is just how much these accounts are going for, with some even hitting a Buy It Now price tag of $499.99. Also, it is not surprising that some of these accounts have been picked up. There are plenty of Pokemon hunters who, despite their best tries, are unsuccessful in collecting these virtual creatures. This is most likely due to the fact of rural areas are rare with certain Pokemon compared to big cities, thus forcing them to buy accounts as it is currently the only way for them to get more types of Pokemon. There is also far less PokeStops, and because of the smaller number of players spread out over larger terrain, there are less lures being dropped.
For instance, accounts listed at level 14 were going for $100, while an account sitting at level 15 was selling for $175 on sites like eBay. On the other hand, there are also lesser bids for some of the lower-priced accounts, including $50 accounts listed at level 10. However, the developer behind the game, Niantic Labs has clearly said this is considered cheating.
It has noted under Niantic’s trainer’s guidelines on its site that you are not allowed to buy or sell accounts, and that gamers caught trying to login with a different Gmail address could be hit with a soft ban. If the development team Niantic cracks down on selling accounts or add in the ability to trade Pokemon in the future, the trade will likely dramatically decrease.
Currently, Pokemon Go is available in various countries around the world, with Niantic promising to have the game rolled out to other regions as soon as server problems are fixed. Pokemon Go is currently the top free and top grossing app on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play. According to research firm SensorTower, it has topped more than 20 million downloads worldwide.
