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Pokémon Go

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Pokémon Go
BERJAYA
The Pokémon Go Plus wearable device
Developer(s)Niantic
Publisher(s)Niantic
Director(s)Tatsuo Nomura Edit this on Wikidata
Artist(s)Dennis Hwang
Composer(s)Junichi Masuda
SeriesPokémon
EngineUnity
Platform(s)iOS, Android
Release
  • US: July 6, 2016
    • AU: July 6, 2016
    • US: July 6, 2016
    • EU: July 13-16, 2016[note 1]
    • CAN: July 17, 2016
    • JP: July 20, 2016
Genre(s)Augmented reality
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Pokémon Go (or Pokémon GO) is a free-to-play Android and iOS game. It was developed by Niantic. It is licensed by The Pokémon Company. It was released in July 2016 in the US, Europe, and Australia. It was bought in March 2025 and is now owned by Scopely.[1] Pokémon Go allows players to catch and train fictional living beings, called Pocket Monsters (in Japan) or Pokémon (everywhere else). The game makes them exist in real life by using GPS and a smartphone's camera.

Pokémon Go has a current score of 69 critic score and a user score of 5.5 on Metacritic.[2]

An earlier game by Niantic called Ingress was used to make the special places in the game.[3] Pokémon GO got its start in an April Fool's joke by Google and The Pokémon Company in 2013, called "Pokémon Challenge".[4]

Mechanics

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As players walk in the real world, their character in the game moves as well. Players can find Pokémon on the in-game map as they walk to places and explore.[5] They can then throw a Pokéball at the Pokémon to see if they can catch it. There are great, ultra, and regular Pokéballs in the game and each tier of ball has better catch rates than the last. Players can also walk to special places in the game called "PokeStops" or "Gyms". At PokeStops, players can find extra Pokéballs and candy to feed their Pokémon as well as other items.

Players can get their Pokémon to fight other Pokémon at gyms to try to win that gym for their team and then have their own Pokémon defend it if they want to. A gym controlled by the same team as the player awards extra items when it is spun as well as gym badge progress. as the gym badge progresses through bronze, silver and then gold, more items are earned by spinning the gym. When your Pokémon is knocked out of a gym you are given Pokécoins based on the CP (combat points) of your Pokémon and CP can be recharged by feeding berries to the Pokémon in a gym your team controls. A limit of 50 Pokécoins can be gained per day with this method.

An item called Pokémon GO Plus is being sold to let people play the game without looking at their smartphones all the time. The accessory spins Pokéstops and has an "autocatch" feature, which automatically tries to catch wild Pokémon. This was the first GO accessory sold. A more powerful accessory called the Pokémon GO++ has been released since then[6] and it allows players to use other types of balls to autocatch Pokémon and more. Pokémon GO looks like a Gameplay of Pokémon mixed with the Google Maps pin shape.[7] The downside of a GO+ or GO++ is that they need to be linked to the phone every hour to continue working. The first GO+ used batteries but the later generation lets players charge it up with USB-C.

The game became more popular after they released the Generation 2 Pokémon, featuring more items and Pokémon. In that update, berries (a type of fruit that makes the Pokémon flee less, giving players higher chances on catching, or for the circles to slow down, etc.) were added, and evolution items were added in (things that are used to evolve Pokémon), such as the Metal Coat and Kings Rock.

Quick-catching

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Pokéball shaking, and the screens that pop up after every caught Pokémon can be avoided by using the quick-catch mechanic. This speeds up catching by many orders of magnitude and is a more fun way to play the game to some people. It was possible to use AR (Augmented Reality) mode in the past, before it was removed by the developers, to shorten both the animations and time it takes between clicking the Pokémon and it appearing on the screen (going into the catch screen/minigame) and having the Pokéball appear or be available. This is no longer possible though.

A player can do a "quick catch" from the Pokémon catch screen/minigame by holding the berry button down and then picking up the Pokéball (in a recent update the player has to wait a second before picking up their Pokéball), throwing the Pokéball, and then dragging up or to the side with the berry finger and releasing to open up the berry menu as the Pokéball is going through the air. Once the berry interface is closed, the escape/run option is available and once the Pokéball has connected with the mon, the escape button can be clicked to roll for a catch. If the Pokémon escapes the ball (and does not flee), it can be clicked on again to try once more. If the escape button is clicked before the ball connects then it will not do anything and the ball will be wasted. However, this is easy to avoid.

Some players pick up the mechanic easily, while others have to learn for some time. Either finger can be used for either action. It was possible to throw a ball upside down (removed in an update) to do quick-catching with one hand easily, though it is still possible to abuse this mechanic with one hand. Before the navigation bar was removed, the back button (on Android OS) was a faster way to escape the minigame to repeat the process.

Refreshing the field

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Opening the friends list and closing it again will force the game to load (causing a white ball to spin in the top right of the screen), making the screen refresh and any uncaught but still available Pokémon appear. This is useful for quick catching, as sometimes the game can glitch. Lag can sometimes cause Pokémon to despawn until it loads next, as well as the Pokémon that are to remain invisible until the next game "tick" or update.

Availability

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Pokémon Go is available in the countries listed. Australia, New Zealand and United States are available in first release date. Pokémon regional exclusives available includes Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Oceania, North America and South America[8]

Global release dates for Pokémon Go
BERJAYA
Key Date Countries and territories Ref.
July 6, 2016 Australia, New Zealand, and the United States [9][10][11][12]
July 13, 2016 Germany [13]
July 14, 2016 United Kingdom [14]
July 15, 2016 Italy, Spain, and Portugal [15]
July 16, 2016 Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland [16][17]
July 17, 2016 Canada [18]
July 19, 2016 Puerto Rico [19][20]
July 22, 2016 Japan [21]
July 24, 2016 France [22]
July 25, 2016 Hong Kong [23]
August 3, 2016 Latin America and Caribbean islands [24][25]
August 6, 2016 Brunei, Cambodia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam [26][27]
September 29, 2016 Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macau, North Macedonia, and Serbia [28]
September 30, 2016 Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan [29]
October 4, 2016 Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia [30]
November 17, 2016 Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates [31]
December 13, 2016 Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka [32]
January 24, 2017 South Korea [33]
September 11, 2018 Russia[a] [35]
June 3, 2021 Turkey [36]
October 12, 2024 Saudi Arabia [37]

References

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  1. ↑ "Scopely to acquire Niantic including Pokémon GO | Scopely". www.scopely.com. 12 March 2025. Retrieved 2026-03-23.
  2. ↑ "Pokemon GO". Metacritic.
  3. ↑ "How Pokémon Go will benefit from Niantic's lessons from Ingress on location-based game design". Retrieved 19 July 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. ↑ Nintendo (15 June 2016). "Pokémon GO - Demonstration - Nintendo E3 2016". Retrieved 19 July 2016 – via YouTube.
  5. ↑ "Finding & Catching Wild Pokémon — Pokémon GO Help Center". niantic.helpshift.com. Retrieved 2026-03-23.
  6. ↑ "Pokémon GO Plus + official website". www.pokemongoplusplus.com. Retrieved 2026-03-23.
  7. ↑ Frank, Allegra (July 11, 2016). "Pokémon Go: Everything you need to know". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved July 12, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  8. ↑ "Pokémon Go regional exclusives list for 2024 and their locations explained". Eurogamer.net. 2020-12-01. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  9. ↑ Wilson, Jason (July 7, 2016). "Pokémon Go launches in US on iOS and Android". Venture Beat. Archived from the original on July 8, 2016. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  10. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey. "Pokémon GO is out now in Australia and New Zealand". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on July 7, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Pokemon Go Is Available Now on Android Devices". GameSpot. July 6, 2016. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  12. ↑ Webster, Andrew (September 10, 2015). "With Pokémon Go, Nintendo is showing that it takes mobile seriously". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  13. ↑ Warren, Tom (July 13, 2016). "Pokémon Go arrives in Europe with German launch". The Verge. Archived from the original on July 13, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Pokemon Go unleashed in the UK". BBC. July 14, 2016. Archived from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Pokémon GO available in Italy, Spain, and Portugal – Nintendo Everything". July 15, 2016. Archived from the original on July 16, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Pokémon GO Available in Twenty-Six New Countries". pokemongo.nianticlabs.com. July 16, 2016. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Pokemon Go is officially out in Ireland – GO!". Breaking News. July 16, 2016. Archived from the original on July 17, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Pokémon GO is now available in Canada!". Archived from the original on July 17, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  19. ↑ "El fenómeno de Pokémon Go se acapara de Puerto Rico pese a problemas con servidores". Univision (in Spanish). No. July 19, 2016. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
  20. ↑ ""Pokémon Go" comienza a funcionar en Puerto Rico". Primera Hora (in Spanish). July 19, 2016. Archived from the original on August 19, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
  21. ↑ 「ポケモンGO」、日本でも配信開始 (in Japanese). Tokyo: Nikkei News. Nikkei Quick New (NQN). July 22, 2016. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  22. ↑ Collins, Yuji (July 18, 2016). "Pokemon Go release delayed in France following Nice attack". CNET. Archived from the original on July 21, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  23. ↑ Nakamura, Yuji (July 25, 2016). "Nintendo Plunges After Saying Pokemon Go's Impact Is Limited". Bloomberg Technology. Archived from the original on July 25, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  24. ↑ "We are excited to share more details about Pokémon GO, including the launch across Latin America!". pokemongo.nianticlabs.com. August 3, 2016. Archived from the original on August 7, 2016.
  25. ↑ Frank, Allegra (August 4, 2016). "Pokémon Go mapping sites were major resource suck, Niantic says". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on August 6, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Pokémon GO is now available in countries and regions across Asia and Oceania". pokemongo.nianticlabs.com. August 6, 2016. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016.
  27. ↑ Suzuki, Wataru (August 6, 2016). "'Pokemon Go' invades Southeast Asia". Nikkei Asian Review. Archived from the original on August 7, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  28. ↑ "Pokémon GO available in five new countries and regions". pokemongo.nianticlabs.com. September 29, 2016. Archived from the original on October 8, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Pokémon GO available in six new countries". pokemongo.nianticlabs.com. September 30, 2016. Archived from the original on October 8, 2016.
  30. ↑ "Pokémon GO available in thirty-one new countries". pokemongo.nianticlabs.com. Niantic, Inc. Pokémon. Nintendo. Creatures Inc. GAME FREAK Inc. October 4, 2016. Archived from the original on October 8, 2016.
  31. ↑ "Pokémon GO now available in eight new countries in the Middle East". pokemongo.nianticlabs.com. November 17, 2016. Archived from the original on November 18, 2016.
  32. ↑ "Pokémon GO is now available in India and other South Asian Countries!". pokemongolive.com. Niantic, Inc. Pokémon. Nintendo. Creatures Inc. GAME FREAK Inc. Archived from the original on December 14, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  33. ↑ Van Boom, Daniel (January 24, 2017). "Pokemon Go craze finally hits South Korea". CNET. Archived from the original on January 24, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  34. ↑ Mott, Nathaniel (12 March 2022). "Niantic Shuts Down Pokemon Go in Russia, Belarus". PCMag. Archived from the original on August 17, 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  35. ↑ "Game Pokemon Go appeared in Russia two years after the world launch". hybridtechcar. September 11, 2018. Archived from the original on March 22, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  36. ↑ "Pokemon GO'dan sevindiren gelişme". Teknoloji Haberleri - ShiftDelete.Net. June 4, 2021. Archived from the original on August 17, 2024. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  37. ↑ "لعبة Pokémon GO تستضيف حدث تفاعلي كبير في بوليفارد الرياض سيتي". Saudi Gamer. October 12, 2024. Archived from the original on December 3, 2024. Retrieved November 26, 2024.

Notes

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  1. ↑ Pokémon Go was released on different dates in Europe. It was released in Germany on July 13; the United Kingdom on July 14; Italy, Spain, and Portugal on July 15; and most of the rest of Europe on July 16.

Other websites

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  1. ↑ Shut down in March 2022 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[34]
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