State of the Game: Pokémon Go – the phenomenon that's now a wonderful routine

It’s got to the point where my phone is unlocked and Pokémon Go is open in my hand as soon as I leave the house. A twirl of the map screen, a quick survey of the local area, and I’m off. On the days I don’t have something or somewhere specific to walk at lunch, or after work, I let the game choose my route. A creature on the Nearby radar, a gym or raid to battle on the horizon. Job done, daily step count up, dopamine gained.

Pokémon GoPublisher: NianticDeveloper: NianticPlatform: iOS, AndroidLaunched: 2016Monetisation: Free-to-play with microtransactions to exceed daily coin-earning limit (for raid passes, egg incubators, cosmetics, etc.)

This month is Pokémon Go’s sixth anniversary and yes, six years on, a lot of people still play Pokémon Go. Perhaps that’s not a surprise – with a launch that big, any game would linger on in the public consciousness, and on the billion or so devices it has been downloaded upon to date. But that, of course, is not why millions of people still regularly play – and the reasons why people do are as diverse as its player base.

Pokémon Go is still primarily a collection game, built on a hugely successful live service model which continually rolls out new events, rotates available creatures, tempts you with exclusives, and lets you do it all while showing off to others. What’s your Pokédex total? How many Shiny Pokémon? How good are their stats? Pokémon Go is the perfect franchise for Niantic’s real-world exploration model – and if this was a State of the Game for Niantic, or indeed the genre of game Pokémon Go helped popularise, I’d have a lot of things to say about how no one (including Niantic) has ever come close to topping it.

Outside of collecting, Pokémon Go continues to find success and retain players for a multitude of other reasons. Exercise is a major focus for me, and was so especially during earlier stages of the pandemic when there was little else to do. Exploration is another, something I enjoy when I have a bit more time on my hands, and can find somewhere I’ve not yet been that’s further afield. I sometimes describe Pokémon Go as “walking but more fun”, and the same is true of going somewhere new, where the game also acts as a rough street map, locals guide and souvenir collection all in one.