Personally I have been thinking about this the last days and wondering why, why Pokémon Go became so popular, and not Ingress, which is very similar and also made by the same company!
Some quick background information about Niantic Labs, they started out in 2010 as an internal startup within Google, and later came out with Ingress which got it's hype, but never the real trend as Pokémon Go! Then Niantic Labs spun out of Google in 2015 and teamed up with The Pokemon company in 2016.
Then the adventure began. They used a lot of rally points which where created in Ingress, so they already had all the data points needed around the world. Making time to market extremely fast! That is also why the app works around the world for countries that not yet have gotten access through it via their app stores. Curious to where you can have pokemon Go, check this site
So back to the original question, why did it get so popular?
First of all I have to say that Pokémon is a strong brand name! Everybody knows the name somehow. Much stronger than the Ingress name.
My mother even knows the name Pokémon and she is 65, that is because I wanted some sort of Pokémon toy when I was younger. My younger siblings of 17, 12, 11 knows the name because all of them are updated on the internet! That spans 3 generations. It's quite a brand name!
That would conclude as reason number one!
Reason number two is the moving and getting around part of the game! Yeah alot of people say, screw that, I want to play in my apartment by myself. But MMO's are a hit, so people like to play with eachother. Pokémon Go brings MMO into the real world. That combined with reason one, that everybody knows the name Pokémon, and can easily explain what it's about.
Yesterday I tried to convince a friend of mine to play, and the reason that got him to download the game, was that I told him that I recently stopped at a lure(Pokémon Go thing), and ended up talking to a couple of guys I didn't know. We all realized that we loved kiting, so we planned to kite the next week. That would never have happened on the internet, first of all because most of the players I would play with would be scattered all over, and not located around me.
That would be reason number two, you actually get to experience the real world together with a sci-fi world!
Lastly we have a third reason, that would be a combination of reason one and two, that you acctually catch the pokémons in "real" life. You walk around, see the pokémon near you on the map, hit the pokémon and then you acctually see him infront of you on the street. Of course this is through the screen combined with the camera, but this generates a lot of cool scenarios!
That would be my 5 cents about the popularity of Pokémon Go!
I think that simply the name "Pokemon" is much more attractive and enough to attract many into trying this game. If you heard "ingress" for the first time, you will forget it very easy. I didn't play, when I was little, with Pokemon cards, but I still like Pikachu and I want to try it out just because of this reason. :D
I like your point! But there are so much pokemon stuff so they needed that little extra/something new, to catch that boom!
Yea, you're entirely right. It also helped their idea of making it so interactive.
Those are sound points.
Pokémon really is a huge brand name, some people that never collected Pokémon cards or even watched the show, sometimes know who Pikachu is!
I think it also taps into our human nature to 'collect' things and explore the world. In this day and age, people tend to be stuck in more, infront of screens a lot of the time, so I think this is a more innovative and healthy way to play a game, even though, ironically, they will still have a screen shoved in their face, but who cares :)
I have yet to play the game (I have a Windows phone) but I have found it interesting how much this app is exploding! In the space of just 1 week (ish,) Pokémon GO if about to overtake twitter in daily active users on Android, that is crazy.
Yeah I totally agree with you! The craziness about it all is also another factor that helps the exponential growth! But what triggered it in the first is what you say and what is mentioned in the article!
I think the variety of cute and interesting monsters really makes it a fun a game to play. Even if you don't know Pokemon, it's intriguing to walk around and find something magical.
Hehe I see your point, but I'm not sure if this would have been as intriguing if there where a totally new magical creature world. We have seen alot of companies trying to get a hit with new types of collectible cards, but flopped, because they never got the traction. It's kinda what Ingress experienced aswell. There you collected shards and other things and tried to fight for stations
Pokémon GO basically turns the original games and anime into real life via Augmented Reality. Almost everyone I know (even my Mom!) have become "Pokémon Trainers". I've also talked to quite a few people that I didn't know and probably wouldn't have talked to had it not been for Pokémon GO.
It is a great game that seems to be bringing people closer together as a whole. It might not solve the worlds problems, but it's at least making us as human beings come together in a way that no other app has.
Well said! I like it! It brings us out and about again and we acctually talk to eachother in real life!
Man, i have 21 years. I born with pokemon red and blue. More than 20 years of animation and games sells. So Pokemon Go it's the result of those years seen how to become a pokemon trainer and now you CAN be a trainer. Fantastic.
I've already made friends playing, I'm very anti social yet I can talk to other players, Plus it gets my chubby butt to exercise! Hah I love this game and I hope its around long term.
Informative and well organized, this was a pleasure to read.
This augmented reality idea is very nice, but for me it is even a parallel reality.
I don't play Pokemon Go just the idea that somewhere next to me in the streets are hidden some Pokemons fills me with wonder, and i can't wait to see how this concept will apply in new games or apps or social networks even!