Pokémon GO

A Super Bowl ad for the 20th anniversary, then the summer that broke reality: Pokémon GO sends millions into parks and streets, stampedes through Central Park, and puts Pokémon back on every front page. Sun & Moon ride the wave.

Part of Pokémon

97 moments in this segment.

1. 2016-02-07 — Train On — 30-second cut. The 30-second broadcast cut of the 20th-anniversary 'Train On' campaign that ran during Super Bowl 50 to an audience of over 111 million viewers.
2. 2016-02-07 — Pokémon Super Bowl 50 commercial — Train On. Pokémon's first-ever Super Bowl ad aired February 7, 2016 during Super Bowl 50, kicking off the franchise's 20th-anniversary year with the slogan 'Train On'.
3. 2016-02-24 — New York Post: Danny DeVito as the voice of Pikachu?. Coverage of the fan campaign that petitioned for Danny DeVito to voice Detective Pikachu before Ryan Reynolds was cast.
4. 2016-02-26 — Pokémon Sun and Moon revealed. The seventh generation was announced in the February 26, 2016 Pokémon Direct, bringing the series to the Alola region for its 20th anniversary.
5. 2016-02-27 — Celebrate 20 Years of Pokémon. Official 20th-anniversary video released for Pokémon Day 2016, twenty years to the day after Red and Green launched in Japan on February 27, 1996.
6. 2016-03-28 — ANA "Peace Jet" Boeing 777. ANA's Boeing 777-381 JA754A in Pokémon livery in March 2016. The 777s were the largest canvases in the fleet, with Pikachu and friends stretched along a 74-metre fuselage.
7. 2016-05-10 — Sun & Moon starters revealed — Rowlet, Litten, Popplio. The May 10, 2016 trailer that introduced Alola's three starters and confirmed the November 18 launch date; it became one of the channel's most-watched game videos.
8. 2016-05-30 — Hong Kong protests Pikachu's new name — WSJ. Wall Street Journal footage of Hong Kong fans marching on the Japanese consulate over Nintendo renaming Pikachu with a Mandarin transliteration, May 30, 2016.
9. 2016-06-14 — Sun & Moon at E3 2016. Nintendo's E3 2016 recap trailer for Sun and Moon, shown the same summer Pokémon GO was about to take over the world.
10. 2016-07-06 — Pokémon GO — Get Up and Go launch trailer. Launch-week trailer for Pokémon GO, which released July 6, 2016 in the US, Australia and New Zealand and hit the top of the App Store within hours.
11. 2016-07-09 — Teen finds body in river while playing Pokémon GO. Nineteen-year-old Shayla Wiggins found a body in Wyoming's Wind River while hunting for a water Pokémon — one of the strangest headlines of GO's first week.
12. 2016-07-10 — ABC News: robbers use Pokémon GO to target victims. In O'Fallon, Missouri, armed robbers used the app's lure beacons to draw players to secluded PokéStops — one of the first GO crime stories, July 10, 2016.
13. 2016-07-11 — Fox News: What is Pokémon GO?. A cable-news explainer from the launch week, when anchors nationwide found themselves explaining PokéStops and lure modules to bewildered audiences.
14. 2016-07-11 — CNBC: GO craze sends Nintendo shares soaring. CNBC covers Nintendo stock jumping roughly a quarter in value in the first trading days after Pokémon GO's launch.
15. 2016-07-11 — BBC News: Pokémon GO, a worldwide hit. BBC News bulletin from July 11, 2016, five days after launch, as GO overtook dating and social apps in daily active users.
16. 2016-07-12 — NBC Nightly News: Why Pokémon GO is taking over the world. NBC Nightly News segment on the app that reached more daily users than Twitter in the US within its first week.
17. 2016-07-12 — FRANCE 24: Nintendo shares soar on Pokémon GO. FRANCE 24's business desk on the GO rally that added billions to Nintendo's market capitalisation within a week of launch.
18. 2016-07-12 — CBS News: Auschwitz Museum asks players to stop. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial publicly asked visitors not to play Pokémon GO on its grounds, calling it disrespectful to the memory of victims.
19. 2016-07-12 — Holocaust Museum asks Pokémon GO players to stop. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington asked players to stay away after screenshots circulated of Pokémon spawning inside the exhibition.
20. 2016-07-12 — Fox Business: GO adds $7.5B to Nintendo's value. Fox Business reports Pokémon GO adding an estimated $7.5 billion to Nintendo's market value in two trading days — before markets realised Nintendo only part-owned the game.
21. 2016-07-12 — CBS New York: the Pokémon GO craze. CBS New York on Manhattan's parks and landmarks filling with phone-wielding trainers during GO's first week.
22. 2016-07-13 — CBC The National: Pokémon GO takes over the real world. Canada's national newscast covers the GO phenomenon — days before the app had even officially launched in Canada.
23. 2016-07-13 — Squirtle sends a Bellevue park crowd running. Eyewitness footage from Bellevue Downtown Park near Seattle, where a single rare spawn moved hundreds of players in seconds during GO's first month.
24. 2016-07-13 — Queue at the Mega Tokyo Pokémon Center. Shoppers standing in line to pay at the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo in Ikebukuro's Sunshine City in July 2016. Opened in 2014, it was the largest Pokémon Center in the world at the time.
25. 2016-07-13 — CNN: Everyone is going crazy over Pokémon GO. CNN Business report from GO's first week, when the free app was already estimated to be earning over $1.5 million a day in in-app purchases.
26. 2016-07-13 — Inside Edition: the dangers of Pokémon GO. Inside Edition's launch-week piece on distracted players walking into trouble, part of a wave of safety coverage that followed the game everywhere.
27. 2016-07-14 — CBS LA: GO mania leads to dangerous consequences. Los Angeles local news on trespassing, traffic near-misses and cliffside catches as GO mania peaked in Southern California.
28. 2016-07-14 — Pokémon GO night in Anchorage. A panoramic view of Pokémon GO players congregating in a park in Anchorage, Alaska, in summer 2016 — proof the craze reached even the far north, where players hunted under the midnight sun.
29. 2016-07-14 — CNN: Clinton drops a Pokémon GO reference at rally. CNN's clip of Hillary Clinton's campaign-trail joke in Annandale, Virginia, urging supporters to 'Pokémon GO to the polls'.
30. 2016-07-14 — 'Pokémon GO to the polls'. The raw clip of Clinton's July 14, 2016 line, which instantly became one of the most memed political soundbites of the 2016 campaign.
31. 2016-07-15 — Central Park stampede — second angle. Another eyewitness angle on the Central Park Vaporeon rush, with drivers abandoning cars mid-street to join the chase.
32. 2016-07-15 — CNN: South Koreans travel to Sokcho to play GO. Because of South Korean mapping restrictions the game only worked around Sokcho — CNN reports on fans selling out buses to the one town where they could catch Pokémon.
33. 2016-07-15 — A library becomes a PokéStop. A welcome board at the San José Public Library embracing its new status as a PokéStop in July 2016. Libraries and museums worldwide leaned in to capture wandering players.
34. 2016-07-15 — The Pokémon Company headquarters. The entrance of The Pokémon Company's offices in Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Tokyo, in 2016. The company jointly owned by Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures manages the world's highest-grossing media franchise.
35. 2016-07-16 — Volcanion and the Mechanical Magearna — Japanese trailer 1. Official Japanese trailer 1 for 'Volcanion and the Mechanical Magearna', released in Japan July 16, 2016 at the height of GO summer.
36. 2016-07-17 — "Don't Pokémon GO and drive". A variable-message traffic sign near Miami warning drivers not to play Pokémon GO behind the wheel in 2016, as US transport agencies scrambled to respond to distracted-driving reports.
37. 2016-07-17 — Pokémon GO players in Central Park. Players clustered in New York's Central Park during the July 2016 launch craze. The park became GO's world-famous epicenter after a rare Vaporeon triggered a literal stampede on 15 July.
38. 2016-07-20 — Saudi clerics renew Pokémon fatwa for GO. News report on Saudi clerics renewing the kingdom's 2001 fatwa against Pokémon as Pokémon GO fever spread worldwide, July 20, 2016.
39. 2016-07-20 — The Salvation Army welcomes trainers. A Salvation Army church in Hednesford, England, advertising itself as a PokéStop in 2016 and inviting players in — churches were among the institutions that embraced rather than banned the game.
40. 2016-07-20 — A fatwa against Pokémon GO? — CNBC. CNBC International on the revived Saudi fatwa against Pokémon GO, echoing the kingdom's 2001 edict against the card game.
41. 2016-07-22 — AP: Pokémon GO launches in Japan. AP footage from July 22, 2016, when GO finally arrived in Pokémon's home country — with McDonald's Japan as launch sponsor turning 3,000 restaurants into gyms.
42. 2016-07-22 — Triple lure at the Lustgarten, Berlin. Berliners camped on the Lustgarten lawn in front of the Altes Museum where three lure modules ran at once in summer 2016, turning the museum island into a Pokémon feeding ground.
43. 2016-07-22 — FT: Pokémon GO finally launches in Japan. The Financial Times reports on the delayed Japanese launch, held back a week after launch plans leaked ahead of the McDonald's tie-up.
44. 2016-07-23 — Midnight gym battle in Brest. A wide view of players gathered around a Pokémon GO gym in Brest, France, in 2016. Strangers meeting nightly around virtual landmarks became the summer's defining social scene.
45. 2016-07-23 — London's Massive Lure Party. Participants at the "Massive Lure Party" Pokémon GO meetup in London on 23 July 2016, one of the first mass fan-organized lure events in Europe.
46. 2016-07-23 — Lure party crowd, London. The crowd at London's Massive Lure Party working their phones in unison on 23 July 2016. Organizers chained lure modules for hours to keep Pokémon — and players — flowing.
47. 2016-07-24 — Caution board in Tsuruma Park, Nagoya. A hand-lettered caution board for Pokémon GO players in Nagoya's Tsuruma Park in July 2016. The park's round pond resembled a Poké Ball on the in-game map and drew enormous crowds.
48. 2016-07-24 — GO fever hits Japan. A crowd of players glued to their phones after Pokémon GO finally launched in Japan on 22 July 2016 — two weeks after the West, in the game's own homeland.
49. 2016-07-28 — Canal-side Pokémon hunting in Delft. A popular Pokémon GO gathering spot along a canal in Delft, Netherlands, in 2016, with players staring into phones where tourists usually photograph the old town.
50. 2016-07-31 — GO players in Square Aragon, Pau. Pokémon GO players filling the Square Aragon in Pau, France, in 2016. Small-town squares across Europe suddenly filled with phone-wielding crowds after dark.
51. 2016-08-01 — Pokémon GO fever in Stockholm. A dense crowd of players in Stockholm during the 2016 "GO fever". At its summer peak the game counted around 45 million daily users worldwide.
52. 2016-08-04 — Hunting Pokémon in Parque México. Players hunting Pokémon in Parque México in Mexico City's Condesa district, August 2016 — the game launched in Latin America that month to some of its biggest crowds anywhere.
53. 2016-08-07 — Pikachu Outbreak 2016 — Pikachu parade in Yokohama. Around a thousand costumed Pikachu performed across Yokohama's Minato Mirai district during the August 2016 Pikachu Outbreak festival.
54. 2016-08-09 — PokéStop crowd in the Alameda Central. Players gathered at a PokéStop in the Alameda Central, Mexico City's oldest public park, in 2016. Historic monuments doubled as game landmarks throughout the craze.
55. 2016-08-12 — GO trainers take over Groningen. Crowds of Pokémon GO trainers filling a square in Groningen in summer 2016. Dutch cities saw some of Europe's densest GO crowds in the game's first weeks.
56. 2016-08-12 — No Pokémon hunting at the airport. A warning sign at Foz do Iguaçu Airport in Brazil telling passengers not to hunt Pokémon airside in 2016, after players began wandering into secure areas worldwide.
57. 2016-08-14 — Sakuragichō Station overrun by Pikachu. The east entrance of Sakuragichō Station in Yokohama wrapped in Pikachu artwork for the 2016 Pikachu Outbreak, which drew over two million visitors that August.
58. 2016-08-19 — Temple bans Pokémon GO. A sign at Hsi Lai Temple in California admonishing trainers not to play Pokémon GO on the grounds in 2016. Sacred sites from temples to Auschwitz asked to be removed from the game.
59. 2016-08-21 — Worlds 2016 — TCG Masters Finals. The Trading Card Game Masters final from the 2016 World Championships in San Francisco, held at the peak of the GO summer.
60. 2016-08-21 — Worlds 2016 — VG Masters Finals. Wolfe Glick defeated Jonathan Evans in San Francisco to win the 2016 Video Game Masters world title, one of the most rewatched VGC sets ever.
61. 2016-09-03 — The Pokémon GO trainer, cosplayed. A cosplayer dressed as a Pokémon GO trainer avatar at Fan Expo Canada 2016 — within weeks of launch, the mobile game's characters had already joined the cosplay canon.
62. 2016-09-03 — The Kijkduin Pokémon invasion. Players packing the Deltaplein in Kijkduin, The Hague, in 2016. The seaside district spawned so many rare Pokémon that the municipality eventually took Niantic to court to reduce the crowds.
63. 2016-09-07 — GO players at Träskändä manor, Espoo. Pokémon GO players roaming the grounds of Träskända manor park in Espoo, Finland, in 2016 — quiet heritage sites everywhere saw sudden, unexplained foot traffic that summer.
64. 2016-09-16 — ABC News: GO linked to distracted driving. ABC News on research tallying thousands of distracted-driving incidents tied to Pokémon GO in its first months.
65. 2016-10-18 — The Pokémon GO Plus wearable. The Pokémon GO Plus wrist device released in September 2016. The Bluetooth button let players catch Pokémon without looking at their phones, and sold out worldwide on launch.
66. 2016-10-26 — A "Pokémon master" in uniform. Airman 1st Class Quintin Rice of the 50th Force Support Squadron playing Pokémon GO on base in 2016. Even the US Air Force wrote up the craze — while warning personnel not to hunt in restricted areas.
67. 2016-10-27 — Sun & Moon — final starter evolutions revealed. The October 27, 2016 trailer revealing Decidueye, Incineroar and Primarina weeks before launch, capping a months-long official reveal campaign.
68. 2016-11-17 — AP: Pikachu parade opens Yokohama festival. AP newsreel of the marching Pikachu battalion that opened the Yokohama Pokémon festival.
69. 2016-12-05 — Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel — English trailer. Official English trailer for Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel ahead of its December 2016 US debut.
70. 2016-12-19 — Symphonic Evolutions in London. The orchestra performing "Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions" in London in December 2016 — two decades of game music played to a sold-out concert hall in the year of GO.
71. 2016-12-30 — Pokémon cosplay at Comiket. A Pokémon cosplayer at Comic Market 91 in Tokyo, December 2016, capping the year Pokémon GO put the franchise back at the center of pop culture.
72. 2017-07-06 — IGN News: GO's one-year anniversary event. One year in, Pokémon GO had passed 750 million downloads — IGN reports on the anniversary event that preceded GO Fest.
73. 2017-07-21 — CBS Chicago: city hosts first Pokémon GO Fest. Local preview coverage of the first Pokémon GO Fest, which drew about 20,000 ticketholders to Chicago's Grant Park on July 22, 2017.
74. 2017-07-22 — GO Fest wristbands. Official wristbands for Pokémon GO Fest Chicago, 22 July 2017. Tickets had sold out in minutes; scalpers resold them for hundreds of dollars before the event melted down.
75. 2017-07-22 — Grant Park panorama, GO Fest 2017. A wide view across Grant Park during GO Fest 2017. On stage, CEO John Hanke was booed with chants of "fix the game" as connectivity collapsed under 20,000 phones.
76. 2017-07-22 — The Mystic Lounge. The Team Mystic lounge at GO Fest Chicago, one of three team areas where players rested between (mostly failed) attempts to connect to the game.
77. 2017-07-22 — The Instinct Lounge. Team Instinct's yellow lounge at GO Fest Chicago 2017. Despite the day's technical fiasco, the festival returned to Chicago annually and became GO's flagship event.
78. 2017-07-22 — Pokémon GO Fest Chicago. The crowd at the first Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago's Grant Park on 22 July 2017. Some 20,000 players attended — and overwhelmed cell networks so badly the game became unplayable, forcing Niantic to refund every ticket.
79. 2017-07-22 — Niantic CEO booed at GO Fest Chicago. Crowd footage of Niantic CEO John Hanke being booed on stage at Grant Park as the game failed for most of the 20,000 attendees.
80. 2017-07-22 — Pokémon GO — Legendary trailer. The trailer for legendary raids, unlocked the weekend of GO Fest Chicago when Lugia and Articuno became the game's first legendary Pokémon.
81. 2017-07-22 — The train home from GO Fest. Attendees riding the train home after Pokémon GO Fest 2017 — still playing. Niantic granted every ticket-holder $100 in-game currency and a legendary Lugia by way of apology.
82. 2017-07-22 — CBS Chicago: GO Fest hit by app failures, refunds offered. Overloaded cell networks and connection bugs left thousands unable to play; Niantic refunded every ticket and granted $100 in PokéCoins.
83. 2017-07-24 — Inside the GO Fest Chicago fiasco. On-the-ground report from Grant Park documenting the queues, dead-zone cell coverage and chants of 'we can't play' at the first GO Fest.
84. 2017-07-25 — CBS Chicago: GO Fest failure draws lawsuit. Attendees filed a class-action suit over travel costs after the failed festival; Niantic later settled for over $1.5 million.
85. 2017-07-29 — IGN: Niantic sued over GO Fest debacle. IGN Daily Fix covers the class-action lawsuit filed by GO Fest attendees seeking reimbursement of travel expenses.
86. 2017-08-09 — A real-world PokéStop. A life-size PokéStop built for Pokémon GO PARK in Yokohama, 2017, held during that year's Pikachu Outbreak — the first official fusion of the game with the city-wide festival.
87. 2017-08-09 — A real-world Pokémon Gym. A physical Pokémon GO Gym erected in Yokohama's GO PARK in 2017, materializing the game's virtual landmark as an actual monument players could stand beside.
88. 2017-08-09 — Mr. Mime spawn point, Pokémon GO PARK. Players mobbing a rare Mr. Mime spawn at Pokémon GO PARK in Yokohama, August 2017 — a week-long zone where European-exclusive Pokémon could be caught in Japan for the first time.
89. 2017-08-10 — GO PARK crowds at the Red Brick Warehouse. Crowds of players sweeping Aka Renga (Red Brick Warehouse) Park during Pokémon GO PARK in August 2017, phones out in the summer heat along Yokohama's harborfront.
90. 2017-08-20 — Worlds 2017 — VG Masters Finals. Ryota Otsubo beat Sam Pandelis in Anaheim to take the 2017 VGC Masters world championship.
91. 2017-09-16 — Safari Zone Oberhausen. Players at the Pokémon GO Safari Zone at the CentrO mall in Oberhausen, Germany, in September 2017 — one of the first official European GO events after the launch-year frenzy.
92. 2017-09-16 — Safari Zone crowd at CentrO. The crowd working their phones at the Oberhausen Safari Zone in 2017. The event had been postponed from August after Niantic's European events initially buckled under demand.
93. 2017-11-17 — Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon launch trailer. Launch trailer for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which closed out the 3DS era with the Necrozma storyline and Team Rainbow Rocket.
94. 2017-11-22 — Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon — overview trailer. Overview trailer for the enhanced Alola pair released November 17, 2017 — the final mainline Pokémon games for the Nintendo 3DS.
95. 2017-11-23 — Pikachu balloon over Central Park West. The giant Pikachu balloon floating down Central Park West at the 2017 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Pikachu debuted in the parade in 2001 and has flown in multiple versions since.
96. 2017-12-15 — Pokémon Hub, Hong Kong. The Pokémon Hub official retail store inside the K11 mall in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, in December 2017 — part of the brand's retail push beyond Japan.
97. 2017-12-26 — No GO in this taxi. A Japanese-language sticker in a taxi prohibiting passengers from playing Pokémon GO in 2017, one of countless micro-bans the game accumulated in everyday Japanese life.