Ten years later, Pokémon Go has made good on its original promise

When Niantic collapsed first Pokémon Go cart in 2015, it was hard to understand how a group of players could work together to catch a pokémon like Mewtwo. But this week at the game’s 10th anniversary event in New York City, Pokémon Go it shows the world as it happens. About 2,000 players (most of them Pokémon Go influencers) packed into Times Square on Thursday evening to participate in a special battle. It was nice to see Times Square go dark briefly before the billboards started to light up, revealing and Mewtwo on the run Mega Evolving, and it was very difficult to see the fictional characters shown in the game’s first trailer.

Although many people had never played a mobile game like Pokémon Go when the game premiered in 2016, the trailer made many ideas easy to understand. Players had to go out into the world, and the game tells them where to find wild animals, captured if they can get to a certain area quickly. The trailer made the gameplay look like it would be cool and predictable, but it also showed some fierce shots of mobs teaming up to take down powerful pokémon. Shooters hadn’t been announced for the game at the time, but it was clear that Niantic had plans to make things like catching legends special.

In a press release, Scopely – which acquired Niantic’s gaming business last year – VP of Marketing Michael Steranka explained that the latest event was the company’s way of following up on that first trailer. “When we first dreamed of what Pokémon GO could be ten years ago, hosting more than a thousand people in a single raid battle was just a dream,” Steranka wrote. “Seeing this vision come to life in Times Square was a great way to celebrate 10 years of playing together with our team.”

This latest incident was far from over this game is the first in 2017when thousands of players descended on Chicago only to find their poké plans thwarted by network congestion and software problems. that Niantic took credit for itself. Steranka joined Niantic that same year to help manage the Chicago incident, and at a press conference this week, he said — at the time — he thought he “should have been fired” for what happened.

“I also quickly realized from this that Pokémon Go group doesn’t point fingers,” Steranka said: “Instead of trying to find someone to blame, everyone came together, and we created a community around Seattle to figure out what went wrong and how to fix things.”

Increasingly and expanding the scope of his individual, community-oriented activities has become increasingly important Pokémon Go‘s exponential growth over the years. According to Scopelymore than 800 million people have downloaded it Pokémon Go since the game was launched, and the company raked in $1 billion from it Go on only in 2025. For many years, Niantic he struggled to replicate such success and its other IP-focused augmented reality games, such as Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Catan: World Explorers. Pokémon GoThe continued popularity is also surprising considering how little the game has changed. But Scopely’s gaming president, Ed Wu, has his own values Pokémon GoStaying strong as the company has put a lot of effort into strengthening the player base.

“What started as an invitation to explore the world around you has become something that brings players across cities, countries, and cultures, from neighborhood gatherings to festivals that draw thousands of people,” Wu said in a press release. “As we look to the future, our commitment remains the same: to continue to change the game in ways that transform everyday environments into opportunities for discovery and collaboration.”

Scopely sees Pokémon Go as an endless game due to the ever-expanding list of monsters and the fact that there will be people – especially young people – who have never played. With every new mainline Pokemon the launch of the game, a new generation of players will arrive. When I asked Wu how his team was planning to evolve Pokémon Go later, he did not go into detail. But he said that Scopely is looking to use ways in which people of different ages (for example, children and their parents) interact. Pokemon and how the gym can be used to empower people.

This weekend, millions of people will be out and about to take part in the 2026 Pokémon Go Fest around the world that will see the map light up and face Mewtwo in a series of challenges that require players to work together. It will be the most ambitious event in the game, but it is group of new mainline Pokemon responsibilities coming down next year, Pokémon Go they will still have room to grow.