Pokémon Masters


is a free-to-play mobile game for Android and iOS developed and published by DeNA. It was released in August 2019. It allows players to battle and collect various prominent Pokémon Trainers from the main series games.

Gameplay

There is a tournament of 3-on-3 battles being held on Pasio Island called the Pokémon Masters League. The main goal is to become its Champion. To enter the Pokémon Masters League, players must collect at least five Badges by defeating the PML Leaders located in Pasio. When recruiting a sync pair, the player can unlock a sync pair story. Players can also participate in limited-time events which are regularly added and updated. Events feature both single-player story events and also co-operative multiplayer events in which players must team up to defeat powerful enemies in order to receive event rewards and prizes.

Sync pairs

A sync pair is a pair consisting of one Pokémon Trainer who had previously appeared in the core handheld games or the anime and one Pokémon in Pokémon Masters. Each sync pair has one of three roles: strike sync pairs, which are focused on attacking; support sync pairs, which are focused on defending, healing HP, and increasing stats of the whole team; and tech sync pairs, which are focused on different tactics, such as inflicting status alterations. Sync pairs can be recruited by playing the main story, or through scouting.

Development and release

Pokémon Masters was first announced by The Pokémon Company on May 29, 2019, alongside some other Pokémon games. It represents the first collaboration between the company and mobile game developer DeNA, it had been released for Android and iOS. The concept of the game came from series artist and designer Ken Sugimori who proposed the idea of having all past characters from the main series together in one game.
A preview version of the game was released in Singapore on July 25, 2019 and in Canada on August 6, 2019. The game was released worldwide on August 29, 2019 for iOS and Android phones. Unlike most other Pokémon games, Pokémon Masters was not released in Belgium and The Netherlands, likely due to bans on loot boxes.

Reception

Within four days of its global release, Pokémon Masters has been downloaded 10 million times and recorded $10 million in revenue. Within its first week, the revenue figures were increased to $26 million. In its first month the game generated $33 million in revenue.