
The most recent Niantic blog post, predominantly focused on Pokémon GO, has revealed the mobile sensation has seen a 35 percent increase in active usage since May.
Following the introduction of the new social features in June, the game has seen a boom of sorts - with 113 million friend connections made and 2.2 billion gifts shared. More than 400,000 trainers also participated in the three global Pokémon GO events held in Dortmund, Germany, Chicago, USA, and Yokosuka, Japan. Millions more joined in on the fun in a series of global quests to unlock special rewards.

Niantic believes these social features highlight the community's desire to interact with each other. This has also been reinforced by the community days held by trainers around the world on a monthly basis. Below is a statement from Niantic CEO John Hanke:
While the headlines are filled with examples of technology being used to divide us, our experiences this summer deepen our conviction that technology can be harnessed to enhance our lives in a positive way and bring us all closer together and strengthen our connection with the communities where we live and play.
As for what the future holds, Niantic are working on some "surprises" for GO this Fall, with the aim to provide even more ways for trainers to play the game together. Niantic itself is coming up to its six-year anniversary. In celebration, it will be launching its upcoming game, Ingress Prime. This is a reboot of the game that started it all for the company. There's also a Netflix anime series on the way.
Have you been playing Pokémon GO since the new social features were added to the game? Tell us below.
[source nianticlabs.com]
Comments 18
Honestly, with the addition of daily bonuses, research tasks, and trading, the app feels more like an actual game now. Year 1 PoGo was barely functional at times, and probably should have stayed baking in the oven a little longer before releasing to the public.
I played this like once or twice and never played it again. I thought it died out. Kinda cool to see that it's still being supported.
The new features are cool, but I think a lot of it has to do with Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee being compatible with it. The Switch games are the only reason I'm playing Pokemon GO.
Long overdue.
Personally I'm glad I don't have to worry about raids, Community Days, and such any more. A lot less stress in my life.
@KingBowser86 But you know, you don't have to do those. I play Pokemon Go everyday, but I don't partake in stated events. I've done it once, and I immediatly knew it wasn't my thing.
They've made a lot of improvements. It's interesting to me that "since May" is the metric, as that is about when I picked up the game again after a year long hiatus. But there are still changes I wish they'd make.
1. I hate the 50 coin a day limit regardless of how many Gyms you conquer... I feel it should be something like 50 coins per gym with the same time requirements and a max of 150 coins per day.
2. Chansey and Blissey need to be nerfed. They are on like 90% of gyms for a reason. Yes, both of them. It literally is harder(slower) to knock out an 800CP Chansey than it is a 3200CP Dragonite or a 4000CP Slaking!
3. Let us sell evolution items we don't need for a small amount of coins. I hate throwing out things like sun stones and upgrades.
4. Another way to gain stardust. It can take days and days to get 100k stardust and you can burn it in like 5 minutes powering up 1 or 2 Pokemon...
All that said. I do enjoy the game, because it really is much better than when it released.
@Saego Basically, you do, if you're going for completion. Sure there are other ways and reasons to play, but having a Pokedex and "Catching them all" is kiiiiind of the point.
@KingBowser86 No, the reason you play Pokemon (GO) is for fun. It's the main goal, side goals can be completion or strong Pokémon.
@Heavyarms55 I totally agree with all your points. Plus, there needs to be a way to punish those players who camp a nearby PokéGym. My girlfriend lives in a small village, where there is only one gym. There is this guy which apparently has a lot of time because everytime someone takes the gym, he takes it back. It's really annoying, because there is no other way in that village to earn coins.
Inb4 "do people still play this game??"
I feel like these increases only happen because of the dips
@Saego "No, the reason you play Pokemon (GO) is for fun."
You have been browsing the Internet long enough to know that fun is subjective and different for every person, right? Because lemme tell ya, that response would get laughed at and flamed so hard anywhere else.
@KingBowser86 Don't you worry, I have! But you won't play a game if it's not fun, right? That the slogan indicates that you 'have to catch them all' as you described, doesn't mean that that's the point of the game. Like I said before, Main goal is to have fun, and how someone achieves that is all up to him / her.
@Saego Well then, not having completion bogged down by grinding/paywall/other constraints put on is generally considered fun across-the-board. That seemed obvious but I believe it bears pointing out here for whatever reason.
@Saego I totally understand that that would be obnoxious as all hell. But if all he is doing is loitering in the area I don't see what they could reasonably do about that.
@Heavyarms55 Grab as many Machamps as you can find. They really are one of the best Pokemon in the game because people use rock and normal types to hold Gyms. A team of 6 will take on anything.....
......but I do hate having to play the game this way. I like to only keep one of each Pokemon and rename them like I would on the gameboy. I have a 2.5yo Raichu @1700CP who has won about 900 battles. Even if I got a better one I’d still keep good old Jasper.
I love that there is so many ways to play the game, but using the Pokemon as disposable items leaves me cold.
I always thought they should allow you to set a permanent set of GPS co-ordinates as a Pokemon Center that only you can see. It would function as a base of sorts, letting you heal all your Pokemon for free and change up your core team.
Players would then be restricted to that core team when fighting in Gym battles whilst out and about. It would add a huge tactical element to the game.
@RadioHedgeFund Almost every chansey and Blissey has either dazzling gleam or psychic... And I have plenty of strong fighting type attackers. It makes only a slight difference. No other Pokemon comes remotely close to chance and blissey when it comes to holding gyms. My t-tar can kill a 3200CP dragonite in less than ten seconds but my best Machamp and Hariyama still take almost 2/3 of the timer on any chansey or blissey above 1500. T-tars drop like paper defending gyms.
@Heavyarms55 I agree with a lot of your ideas, though I doubt Niantic would extend the 50 coin limit to be "per gym". As it is we already have some PoGo communities getting very territorial about gyms & booting out "outsiders" and verbally abusing people for taking "their" gyms... imagine a potentially huge coin/financial haul is at stake?
As for Blissey, I see Niantic bumping up alternate defenders rather than nerfing Blissey - defeating gyms is ridiculously easy at the moment.. even someone Golden Razzing them is just a minor inconvenience.
@Spudworthy I disagree, I've seen a lot of players return to the game recently & it's mostly due to the new community features and events. The game was sorely lacking direction for a long time & it's finally found it's mojo. After 2 years. I doubt very many old school Pokémon players (like myself) that didn't already play PoGo would have picked it up for Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, especially with a mainline game due next year.
So where does it stand overall and not just since May?
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