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Tech & Science
Pokémon Go celebrates 10 years: hundreds of players gather at Times Square for the anniversary
Tech & Science Desk · · 30s summary · 3 min read
The essentials
Pokémon Go, the mobile augmented reality application that lets players capture virtual creatures by moving through real-world locations, celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026. Launched in July 2016, the game has been downloaded over one billion times on iOS and Android. For the occasion, its publisher Scopely gathered hundreds of players at Times Square in New York for a massive raid against a giant Mewtwo, a direct reference to the game's original trailer. According to Scopely's data, players have collectively traveled over 100 billion kilometers since the game's launch.
- Pokémon Go celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026 with over 1 billion downloads
- Scopely organized a giant raid against Mewtwo at Times Square to mark the occasion
- Players have collectively walked over 100 billion kilometers since the 2016 launch
- More than 400,000 people participate annually in the game's outdoor events
- Millions of players still log into the app every single day
What we know
Pokémon Go, the mobile application that overlays virtual creatures onto real locations using augmented reality and GPS, celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026. Its publisher Scopely, an American mobile video game developer and publisher based in Los Angeles, organized an event at Times Square in New York, according to the BBC.
One Thursday, hundreds of players gathered at the iconic New York plaza to collectively battle a giant Mewtwo during a raid. A raid is a cooperative challenge in which players meet physically to battle together against a particularly powerful Pokémon. The scene directly referenced the original trailer released when the game launched in 2016.
The game has been downloaded over one billion times on iOS and Android since its launch, and millions of players still log in every single day.
The numbers
Over 1 billion
Pokémon Go downloads on iOS and Android since 2016
Over 100 billion km
Total distance traveled by players since launch (according to Scopely)
≈ 334 round trips between Earth and the Sun
Astronomical equivalent of players' cumulative distances (Scopely estimate)
Over 60 countries
Countries that have hosted live Pokémon Go events
Over 400,000 participants per year
Average annual participation in physical events since the first Go Fest (2017)
A global community
Since 2017 and the first Go Fest—an annual outdoor event bringing together players worldwide for exclusive collective challenges—Pokémon Go has organized gatherings in over 60 countries, with an average of more than 400,000 participants per year.
In 2025, the Wild Area event—a gathering in a designated physical space for collaborative activities—took place in Doncaster (South Yorkshire, United Kingdom). It was the only European event of this type organized that year.
British content creator j0beats runs one of the largest Twitch channels dedicated to Pokémon Go.
The illustrations in this article are generated by artificial intelligence.
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