Pokemon Sleep Players Hope For a Sleeper Hit After Europe Release

Pokemon Sleep has unexpectedly launched far sooner than anticipated. Many believed it would become available close to the end of July 2023, but it arrived right in the middle, with several countries getting access to the mobile game earlier than others. Now, players in Europa, Africa, and the Middle East can freely download the game from their preferred application store.

With the mobile game now appearing on more markets, fans can turn the application on as it monitors their sleeping patterns, allowing them to catch Pokemon that appeared while they slept. Already a few days in, players are waiting curiously to see what’s going to keep them coming back to the game, and have become weary of how effective Pokemon Sleep will be in the long run.

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Pokemon Sleep Becomes More Available & Players Struggle With Passive Gameplay

Pokemon Sleep gives Pokemon fans a chance to catch their favorite pocket monsters while they sleep. The application monitors their sleep patterns over a given evening with the intent of building healthier and more helpful sleeping patterns. Each time a player wakes up from a restful night, there are new Pokemon to catch each day.

Initially announced in May 2019, fans waited for years following that news to learn more about Pokemon Sleep, but little data was provided about it. It wasn’t until this year, during February 2023’s Pokemon Presents event, that we saw footage of the game and learned it would be arriving this year. Now that it’s here and widely available, fans are struggling with the next hurdle in this mobile game: Passive Gameplay.

The whole idea is for fans to catch Pokemon after they’ve finished sleeping, and this is an activity that happens once a day, at the end of it, and typically for six to eight hours. For Pokemon players who are used to grinding out levels or catching Pokemon in tall grass, it’s a drastically different gameplay structure from the original games, and that sharp change has not gone unnoticed. Many fans are eager to expand their Pokemon collection, and some are even attempting to catch shiny Pokemon, the rare, uniquely colored version of a Pokemon that has a drastic chance of appearing throughout the series.

Some fans are also worried about having to place their mobile devices so close to their heads while they sleep, or those who already struggle to get a good night’s rest might find this application extremely difficult to enjoy.

At the start of Pokemon Sleep’s launch, this gameplay approach will be challenging for many to grasp, and it might lead many fans to drop off the game following a few weeks. For now, we’re keen to learn more about any upcoming features and in-game events developers Select Button and Niantic plan to support the title and the larger way to keep players invested in this unique product.