The hype surrounding mobile game Pokémon GO, crowned by Google as the third most popular search for 2016, is nowhere near the level where it was at when the app first launched in July.
The popularity of Pokémon GO, however, is still immense, allowing it to continue reaching amazing milestones such as the latest one that developer Niantic Labs revealed.
Pokémon GO Players Walk 8.7 Billion Kilometers
According to a post on the official Pokémon GO website by Niantic Labs, players of the mobile game have collectively walked over 8.7 billion kilometers, or 5.4 billion miles, while playing as of Dec. 7.
For an idea on how far that distance is, Niantic Labs said that it is roughly equivalent to walking more than 200,000 times around the Earth. Another fun fact that the developer threw in is that a commercial jetliner would need more than 1,000 years to travel that far.
Back in September, Niantic Labs said that players have walked over 4.6 billion kilometers (nearly 2.9 billion miles) in total since Pokémon GO's release in July. This means that in a span of three months between September and December, the accumulated distance comes to just over 4 billion kilometers (2.5 billion miles), showing that there is indeed a slowdown for the app as the distance walked over Pokémon GO's first two months is higher.
Pokémon GO Trainers Catching Them All
In addition to the milestone of 8.7 million kilometers walked collectively by Pokémon GO players, Niantic Labs also revealed the tidbit that 88 billion Pokémon have been caught as of the same date of Dec. 7.
The figure represents about 533 million Pokémon caught daily, showing that while there may be a slowdown, the interest generated by Pokémon GO is still on a massive scale.
Recent Pokémon GO News
Niantic recently released a major update to Pokémon GO that introduces second-generation Pokémon to the game. However, players are not happy because the new Pokémon can so far only be obtained through hatching eggs. In addition, many long-requested features such as Pokémon trading, legendary Pokémon and player-to-player battles are still not available.
There were also recent rumors that Niantic Labs canceled the development of the Apple Watch version of the mobile game. The developer was quick to label the rumors as a hoax, confirming that Pokémon GO will indeed come to Apple's smartwatch. It is said that the app is still on track for a 2016 release date, but with just over a week to go, Niantic Labs might not be able to keep that promise.
