You don’t know what you’re talking about if you said Pokémon Go is dead. The developers – Niantic – recently revealed the app generates a staggering 65 million active players a month. Sure, we don’t see copious amounts of eyes-glued-to-the-screen individuals hunting in packs like we once did, but Pokémon Go is still considered the fastest growing app of all time.
Let’s put that into perspective: Uber has 40 million active users per month and Blizzard’s hit games like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Diablo and all the rest add up to only 41 million users a month. The Pokémon app pretty much sits in the same league as major game changers such as League of Legends (100 million) and other kinds of apps like Spotify (140 million).
The first month of release saw mobs walking around in pursuit of the virtual pets. Places you would go to for a relaxing walk suddenly turned into Pokéstops; crowded as hunters scurried for rare Pokémons.
Since the app was introduced worldwide, reports have poured in about people walking into lamp-posts, drains and trees, and crashing their cars while trying to catch a rare Vulpix among other things in the middle of the road. Others have lost their ways in jungles, caves and even walked off cliffs. Like that one Malaysian who was fined merely less than 24 hours after the game was released in Malaysia for driving whilst playing!
A tweet showing Malaysians Poke-hunting in Taman Jaya last year
Pokémon Go has only started warming up though. A recent interview with John Hanke, founder and CEO of Niantic revealed that the company will be focusing around the gyms and raid features that were just launched. Aside from that, developers are looking at player versus player battling and trading features as their next moves for the app.
John Hanke, founder and CEO of Niantic
With all these exciting news, it might be the time to start hunting again. Seems like we can expect the viral augmented mobile game to be taking players to another level! If you’re a fan, go for it but do not forget to be mindful of your surroundings as well as others around you. As fun as the app is, it’s not cool to break the law all in the name of Pokémon and remember – safety first!
Be right back, gotta catch ’em all!