How Pokémon Go finally fulfilled its decade-old promise

When Niantic unveiled the first Pokémon Go trailer back in 2015, the concept of hundreds of players coordinating to catch a legendary creature like Mewtwo seemed like pure fantasy. Fast forward to this week, and the game’s 10th anniversary event in New York City transformed that dream into reality. Nearly 2,000 players, including prominent Pokémon Go influencers, packed into Times Square on Thursday evening for a special battle. The moment Times Square went dark before its iconic billboards lit up to reveal an escaped Mega Evolving Mewtwo was breathtaking. Even more striking was watching people live out the exact scenario teased in that original trailer.

When Pokémon Go launched in 2016, most people had never experienced a mobile game quite like it. Yet the trailer made the premise crystal clear: go outside, and the game would guide you to locations where wild monsters could be caught if you moved quickly enough. While the ad emphasized a relaxed, solo adventure, it also featured dramatic scenes of crowds uniting to take down powerful Pokémon. Raids weren’t part of the game yet, but Niantic clearly intended to make legendary captures feel monumental.

In a press release, Michael Steranka, VP of product at Scopely (which acquired Niantic’s games business last year), explained that the anniversary event was designed to fulfill that original vision. “When we first dreamt what Pokémon GO might become a decade ago, hosting more than a thousand people in a single, local raid battle was just a pipe dream,” Steranka wrote. “Seeing that vision become a reality in Times Square was the perfect way to celebrate 10 years of playing together with our community.”

This latest gathering was a world apart from the game’s first in-person event in 2017, when thousands of players descended on Chicago only to face network crashes and software glitches that Niantic later took responsibility for. Steranka joined the company that year to help manage that disastrous event, and during a press briefing this week, he admitted that he thought he “should have been fired” for how things unfolded.

“I also quickly discovered from this experience that the Pokémon Go team does not point fingers,” Steranka said. “Instead of trying to find someone to blame, everybody came together, and we spun up an offsite in Seattle to learn what went wrong and how to fix things.”

Doubling down on in-person, community-focused events has been a driving force behind Pokémon Go’s remarkable growth. According to Scopely, over 800 million people have downloaded the game since launch, and it generated $1 billion in revenue in 2025 alone. While Niantic struggled to replicate that success with other AR games like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Catan: World Explorers, Pokémon Go’s enduring popularity is surprising given that its core gameplay hasn’t changed dramatically. Ed Wu, Scopely’s games president, credits this longevity to a stronger emphasis on cultivating player communities.

“What started as an invitation to explore the world around you has become something that brings players together across cities, countries, and cultures, from neighborhood meetups to celebrations that draw hundreds of thousands of people together,” Wu said in a statement. “As we look ahead, our commitment remains unchanged: to keep evolving the game in ways that turn everyday places into opportunities for discovery and connection.”

Scopely views Pokémon Go as a forever game, thanks to the franchise’s ever-growing roster of monsters and the constant influx of new players, especially younger ones who have never played before. Each new mainline Pokémon game release brings a fresh wave of participants. When asked about future plans, Wu declined to share specifics but noted that Scopely is exploring how people of different ages (like children and their parents) introduce each other to Pokémon, and how gyms can strengthen community bonds.

This weekend, millions of players are expected to take part in the 2026 global Pokémon Go Fest, which will fill the map with even more Mewtwo encounters and collaborative challenges. It promises to be the game’s most ambitious event yet. And with new mainline Pokémon titles arriving next year, Pokémon Go still has plenty of room to grow.