The Rise and Fall of Pokémon GO

The full story of the rise and fall of Pokémon GO.

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[MRKMUSC]

This is such a great breakdown of the highs and lows of PoGo. I first started playing in 2016 and quit by early 2017. Decided to pick it up again in 2023 and was amazed by how much had changed and improved, but the remote raid pass nerf has left a nasty stain on the game...

[lube]

The fall is worse than charmander’s tail getting washed

[hazelmarieb]

Those first few weeks created some fun memories. Parks were full of life again, and everyone was so excited to catch pokemon you wouldnt normally get so hyped over in the main games. Hundreds would show up to a pokemon go meet up at a park, people would bring waters and sports drinks, and snacks, and share, we would all share info on what we are seeing, have friendly three way rivalrys between team instinct, valor, and mystic. On more than one occasion youd hear someone call out something like "Hey there's a gastly over here!" Then that would relay across the park, and someone would sprint toward the spot screaming and everyone would go running to that spot to catch a gastly, which was really hard to find when pogo first launched. If nothing else, we had a fun few weeks that summer, when pokemon felt real, even if it didnt last.

[thisoneguy]

Remote raids going away has made it very hard to find excitement about playing, I live in an extremely rural area, and remote raids were the only way I could play a raid. Sad to see that many others are in my same situation

[monkeyock]

A lot of people are commenting about how remote raids were supposed to be temporary and all…but before remote raids I couldn’t do legendary raids even in a pretty large area (Raleigh NC) because there simply wasn’t a group that I had the time and availability outside of work to meet up with. This weekend I went to a couple of parks to see if anyone was around to try and work on some shadow mewtwo…nothing. I used to buy a few remote raid passes a week and spend a little bit of real money each month and I could jump on invites I had coming from around the world from people in my friends list. Or I could use a service like pokegenie to do a couple of legendary raids and try for shiny or hundo or whatever. I can’t afford to do any of that now. I started playing on the third day after launch in 2016 and now I’m just losing steam and thinking of quitting. I’m not even really a “rural” player, and I don’t have any disabilities that preclude getting out and about so I can only imagine how badly the game has felt limited to those players lately.

[KnightJRL]

Brandon, this is by far the realest, most open and honest reivew of the game and company I have ever seen from anyone. Not only does it serve as an incredibly perfect recap, but also as a letter to the developers.

I appreciate you continuing to be honest about the highs and lows of the game - despite Niantic's not so subtle disapproval of your honesty.

[BritishEcho]

That first month or so was amazing....
Literally everyone was playing the game and everyone was down for hanging out and catching together.
Never have I ever seen a more harmonised society than when PoGo released. Those times were the best.
Sadly I don't play the game now... It just can't hold my interest, no one I know still plays either.

I will remember those times fondly, along with the cool people I met.

[MasonOfLife]

Man that first week of Pokémon GO was a truly magical time, and I didn’t even play it that much, but I’d be outside seeing people playing it and it was amazing

I ran into friends I hadn’t seen for years who were just walking outside looking for Pokémon

And it gave everyone something fun to do

[nickmusser]

It's really sad to see where this game has gone. I love playing this game. It's so much fun to get out and grind trying to find shinies, but raiding was a great time for so long. It brought a community together better than I've ever seen. Since the remote raid nerf, all the groups I participated in are like a ghost town now. Most of my friends have quit and the ones that haven't, aren't excited about the game anymore. I went out for a few hours each day this weekend and couldn't find anyone to help with mewtwo raids. I wasn't able to do one raid in playing for a few hours. While I don't see Niantic changing their mind about this I hope they see these comments and adjust the current rules. I'm fine with only 5 a day, but did they really need to increase the price? I don't buy them anymore but it hasn't pushed me to do in person raids because no one is out playing. I would've been more than happy to get a couple mewtwos this weekend with the help of remote raids. Thanks to anyone who does read this and considers making a change. I don't want to see this game die out. I love playing and plan to continue. I just don't see a way for me to battle legendaries anymore unless I get lucky.

[nsowen]

Thank you for saying what were all feeling right now. This game has been a part of my life for nearly 7 years now, leading me to fun and exciting placed I might not have ever seen otherwise. I'm truly sad to see the direction it's going but I'm glad someone is voicing the community's feelings.

[mspirits]

I had my ups and downs with this game, returning every couple of years. One thing that made me excited this year was the remote raid as most of my friends had already stopped playing. Now, I can play with many people wherever they are and it was awesome. Unfortunately, with the pricy item, Niantic actually should not be limiting people to 5 times.

[jakelynch]

The fundamental issue with the game is that it isn’t accessible to the casual player. I get shiny rates need to be hard, but for most people it makes them pretty much unattainable. Raids are impossible unless you are in major cities because there just isn’t the player base. IMO Niantic would be better off making everything more accessible to the casual player so that they increase the player base and then can have bigger profits themselves

[DotJayYT]

This video is extremely well made. Thank you mystic for all these amazing years of Pokemon Go while it lasted.

[NotAdriana]

I still get the feeling that, despite everything, there's some semblance of heart behind Pokémon Go, even now. However, if it were to be bought out by a different company, it might be what the game needs.

[bumbummole]

I've played the game nonstop since 2016, and a huge problem I still struggle to this day is the lack of support for not so large cities. For example, I lived in the 5th biggest city of Brazil and there were close to none pokestops/gyms in the city, but that didn't stop the Pokemon GO craze in 2016 and, of course, the huge drop of the player base soon after. But for an insistent player such as myself, there were no presencial events, and even when I paid for events such as community days, the spawn rate of Pokemon was ridiculously low!! I don't know how I was able to keep motivated in the game. Nowadays I live in a bigger city, but I'm almost quitting the game for good :(

[albin]

Never played PokémonGo, I just remembered the news and people going crazy in 2016, it was fun looking all the people running around catching Pokémon, I didn't know how much the game changed on those years and sad to see that the community is no longer what it was. Really nice video, thanks for uploading it.

[suban]

No emotions can describe my rage towards niantic with the way the shadow raids for mewtwo was handled. I don't think they understand how it feels to know, that the strongest pokemon in the game is finally available for two whole days and you can get as many as you want in that time frame, but only a select few can get them, because you need an in-person team to defeat it. I don't think they know how it feels to see everyone else show off their shiny shadow mewtwo or even their shadow hundo mewtwo or the 26 shadow mewtwos they caught during those two days. Meanwhile YOU have literally none, because you have NOBODY to play with, and you can't use remote raidpasses. I do not care about the horrendous nerf to the remote raid pass, but the freaking fact that you removed it from the the event that can give you dozens of the best pokemon in the game, and only a select few get to have it, is beyond infuriating. What makes this so more infuriating is the fact that this is probably never coming back in YEARS. So, tHanK yoU sO mUch NiAntIc, I had so much fun soloing shadow mewtwo and getting an astounding zero shadow mewtwos for 2 whole days.

[Norpthalomus]

You crushed this video, thanks for making this! Perfectly summed up my feelings: past, present, and future. Something has gotta change because I’m so checked out and this was one of my favorite communities/hobbies

[TheGauravkumarrathore]

It's so unbelievable the way this game made thousands of people come out of their house and play with full of joy ❤

[jflartner]

Played a bunch in 2016 like a lot of people and have come back to the game thanks to our little one discovering and falling in love with the show. Been really loving the game - kind of glad I didn't come back before the remote raid nerf.

Hoping for the best going forward.