Yes, even though the initial craze has faded, there are still many players dedicating their time to catching Pokémon. In fact, Niantic has prepared its first statistics, and some of the numbers are truly surprising. Since its official launch in early July, Pokémon Go users have accumulated 8.7 billion kilometers walked—that's like circling the globe more than 200,000 times.
There's no doubt that Pokémon Go was the mobile app of 2016. The presence of Pokémon on our mobile devices and augmented reality answered a latent demand that turned out to be much bigger than anyone could have imagined. Unfortunately, not everything that glitters is gold in Pokémon Go, and just as it welcomed millions of fans with open arms, it also had its share of detractors, with specific bans in certain regions, several incidents, and even reported deaths. At the same time, Niantic proved incapable of managing the spectacular flow of users, its updates left much to be desired, and the company still owes features that were announced on day one. Meanwhile, some official data have emerged, and the first thing we can say is… that its players walked a bit.
Impressive numbers
Although the British Medical Journal questioned Pokémon Go's value as an exercise tool, the truth is that since the app's launch, its users have accumulated 8.7 billion kilometers walked. That surpasses by 1.2 billion kilometers the distance between Earth and Pluto when they are furthest apart, but if we limit references to our planet, it would be like completing its circumference about 217,000 times. Add to that a not-at-all-insignificant 88 billion Pokémon caught. Recently, Niantic added some second-generation Pokémon to the game, but the so-called legendaries are still conspicuously absent, so the vast majority of those 88 billion were likely part of the 'grind' that users had to endure.
What's next for Pokémon Go? From what I've been able to find out, on December 29 there will be a special Pikachu dressed in a Christmas hat, but nothing more. We all hope that in 2017 Niantic will go far beyond the numbers and start integrating the rest of the franchise into the app. That's the only way to maintain interest.
