Pokémon Go Trivia: The longest list of facts!

Pokémon Go is a free-to-play augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. Let’s see some interesting facts and trivia about it!

1. The game was released  to celebrate Pokémon’s 20th anniversary.

2. After logging into the app for the first time, the player has the opportunity to create an avatar.

3. The player can choose the avatar’s style, hair, skin and eye color and can choose from a number of outfits.

4. After creating the avatar, it will be displayed at the player’s current location along with a map of the player’s immediate surroundings.

5. Features on the map may include a number of Pokéstops and Pokémon gyms.

6. These are typically located at popular meeting places, such as memorials, places of worship, parks and tourist attractions.

7. Players have to walk around in the real world to move their avatar in the game.

8. Different Pokémon live in different areas of the world; for example, water-type Pokémon are found near water.

9. Unlike other installments in the Pokémon series, players in Pokémon Go do not battle wild Pokémon to capture them.

10. Rather, the game relies on a unique capture system where the player must throw a pokéball with the right force and at the right time to make a successful catch.

11. After capturing a wild Pokémon, the player is awarded two types of in-game currencies: candies and stardust.

12. The idea for the game was conceived in 2013 by Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokémon Company as an April Fools’ Day collaboration with Google called Pokémon Challenge, with Tatsuo Nomura of Google Maps, who then became a senior project manager at Niantic, at the center of the project.

13. In 2015, Ishihara dedicated his speech at the game’s announcement on September 10 to Iwata, who had died two months earlier.

14. The decision to create the Go Plus rather than create a smart watch app was to increase uptake among players for whom a smart watch is prohibitively expensive.

15. On March 4, 2016, Niantic announced a Japan-exclusive beta test would begin later that month, allowing players to assist in refining the game before its full release. The beta test was later expanded to other countries.

16. The game was officially released in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand on July 6, 2016.

17. Due to server strain from high demand upon release, Niantic CEO John Hanke stated that the release in most other regions was “paused until he was comfortable” fixing the issues.

18. The Pokémon Go Plus is a Bluetooth low energy wearable device that allows the player to walk without looking at their smart device.

19. Upon 24 hours after its release, Pokémon Go topped the American App Store’s “Top Grossing” and “Free” charts.

20. Investors were buoyed by the response to the release of Pokémon Go with Nintendo’s share price rising by an initial 10% and by July 11, 2016, shares had risen to as high as 23%.

21. According to online tracking service Similar Web, Pokemon Go was installed on 5.16 per cent of all Android devices in the US by Friday 8 July, only 3 days after the app’s release. That’s more than Tinder.

22. Over 3 per cent of the entire US Android population have not just downloaded but used the app.

23. According to Similar Web, over 60 per cent of those who have downloaded it are using it daily.

24. Within its first two days of release, Pokémon Go raised safety concerns among players. On launch day, the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services reminded players to “look up, away from your phone and both ways before crossing the street”.

25. The same day, while using the game, a player in the American state of Wyoming stumbled across a dead body that was floating in a river.

26. The app led players to congregate near strangers’ homes, as in the case when a Pokémon Gym was placed near the house of a Holyoke, Massachusetts man who lived in a converted church.

27.  In O’Fallon, Missouri, eleven teenagers became victims of armed robberies by four individuals in a black BMW at a shopping center. The four suspects were apprehended by O’Fallon Police Department officers later that evening, who explained how they were able to lure the teenagers using in-game items that attracted more Pokémon.

28. Outside of the US, users around the world have been trying to download Pokemon Go using an APK, bypassing the official app store.

29. The main source, apkmirror.com, saw its traffic go from roughly 600,000 visits on 5 July to over four million visits on 6 July alone.

30. Spotify streams of the Pokemon Theme “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” have increased 362 per cent globally in the past week following the enormous success of Pokemon Go. Overall streams of Pokemon songs on Spotify have more than tripled.

Read here some strange facts about Pokemon Go!