Pokémon Go released to "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Upon release, critics called the experience enjoyable, but noted the game's technical issues.[11][162][169]
Critics praised various aspects of Pokémon Go. Oscar Dayus [Pocket Gamer] said that the game was an immensely enjoyable experience and continued with how "the very personal nature of catching Pokémon in your own neighborhood made me smile more than any game has for years".[169] Jeremy Parish [US Gamer] compared the game and its social aspects to a massively multiplayer online game.[170] Reviewers also praised the game enabling the promotion of physical exercise. Terri Schwartz [IGN] said it was "secretly the best exercise app out there" and that it changed her daily walking routine.[171] Patrick Allen [Lifehacker] wrote an article with tips about how to work out using Pokémon Go.[172] Julia Belluz [Vox] said it could be the "greatest unintentional health fad ever" and wrote that one of the results of the game that the developers may not have realized was that "it seems to be getting people moving".[173] Users took an extra 194 steps per day once they started using the app, which approximated to 26% more than usual.[174] IGN named it the 100th best video game of all time in 2018.[175]
Philip Kollar and Allegra Frank [Polygon] both agreed that Pokémon Go was "an exciting social experience", but were not sure how long the game and its popularity would last, stating it could either last for coming years or "end up as a brush fire craze that the whole gaming world is talking about for a few weeks and then is forgotten".[165]
Other critics expressed more negative opinions of the game, with many citing frequent crashes and other technical issues, along with shallow gameplay. Kallie Plagge [IGN] said that although the game lacked in polish and depth, the overall experience made up for it.[162] Matt Peckham [Time] criticized the game for its frequent crashes. Mike Cosimano [Destructoid] also took issue with the game, saying the original idea showed promise, but was improperly executed.[7] Kat Brewster [The Guardian] wrote that although she thought Pokémon Go was not a good game, it was "a great experience".[166] The server problems also received negative press. Miguel Concepcion [GameSpot] said that although he enjoyed the game's strong social appeal and visual design, the game's "initial iteration is a buggy mess on all levels", with one of the reasons being the constant server problems.[11] Another glitch that appeared a few days after launch was the "three-step glitch", reviewers also gave this bug negative press. Patricia Hernandez [Kotaku] said, "the three step glitch adds to what has been a terrible launch for Pokémon Go".[176] Paul Tassi [Forbes] said that due to this bug it's "anyone's best guess where Pokémon are 99% of the time" and that it "renders almost all traditional methods of tracking pointless".[177] Critics also emphasized on the large gap between the rural and urban players. Rural players seem to be at a major disadvantage when playing the game, while city players have access to more PokéStops and Gyms.[178]
Downloads and revenue
2016
Revenue of Pokémon Go between 2016 and 2020.
Pokémon Go rapidly rose the American iOS App Store's "Top Grossing" and "Free" charts.[179][180] The game has become the fastest game to top the App Store and Google Play, beating Clash Royale,[181] and it became the most downloaded app on the App Store of any app in their first week.[182] Within two days of release, it was installed on more than 5% of Android devices in the United States, according to SimilarWeb,[183] According to Sensor Tower, the game was downloaded more than 10million times within a week of release, becoming the fastest such app to do so,[184] and reached 15million global downloads by July 13.[185] According to SurveyMonkey the game became the most active mobile game in the United States ever with 21million active users on July 12, eclipsing Candy Crush Saga's peak of 20million.[186] By July 15, approximately 1.3million people were playing the game in the Netherlands, despite the app not being officially released in the country at the time.[187] On the day of release in Japan, more than 10million people downloaded the game,[188] including 1.3million in the first three hours.[189] By July 31, the game exceeded 100million downloads worldwide, according to App Annie and Sensor Tower.[190] On August 8, Pokémon Go reached the milestone of over 100 million downloads on Google Play alone after barely 33 days on the market.[191][192]
Through in-game purchases, the game generated more than $160 million by the end of July 2016,[193] with App Annie reporting that Pokémon Go had generated around $10 million in revenue every day that month.[194] The same month, Sensor Tower reported that the game had passed more than $200 million in worldwide revenue, beating every existing record set by Clash of Clans and Candy Crush by a wide margin.[195] On August 12, 2016, the Financial Times reported that Pokémon Go reached $268 million in revenue after five weeks counting only the U.S., British, and German markets.[196] The average daily usage of the app on Android devices in July 2016 exceeded that of Snapchat, Tinder, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.[197] Due by the game's massive popularity, several app developers became focused on developing similar AR apps using available software development kits [SDK]. By September 2, 2016, Pokémon Go had generated more than $440 million in worldwide revenue, according to Sensor Tower.[198] By September 30, it had received 500 million downloads and grossed $470 million in 80 days, according to market research firm Newzoo.[199] Pokémon Go reached the milestone of $600 million in revenue after only 90 days on the market, becoming the fastest mobile game ever to do so.[200]
Besides in-game purchases, partnerships with retail chains like Starbucks,[201] McDonald's,[202] Sprint,[203] pay Niantic Labs for "Foot Traffic" on-demand of the retail shops.
The game was awarded five Guinness World Records in August 2016: most revenue grossed by a mobile game in its first month [$206.5 million]; most downloaded mobile game in its first month [130million downloads]; most international charts topped simultaneously for a mobile game in its first month [top game in 70different countries]; most international charts topped simultaneously for a mobile game in its first month [top grossing in 55countries simultaneously]; and fastest time to gross $100 million by a mobile game [reached in 20days on July 26].[204] By September 2016, Pokémon Go had been downloaded over 500 million times worldwide, and became the fastest game to make over $500 million in revenue.[205] Pokémon Go was awarded the App Store's breakout hit of 2016.[206] Pokémon Go was reported to be the most searched game on Google in 2016.[207]
Usage of the game in the United States peaked on July 15, and by mid-September, had lost 79% of its players there. Forbes said "the vaguely curious stopped playing and the more committed players ran up against a fairly unsatisfying endgame".[208] In October 2016, Niantic released a Halloween-themed event, which saw a surge in revenue up to 133% as reported by Sensor Tower, placing the game back to top of the charts of highest grossing apps. It was reported that the game earned approximately $23.3 million between October 25 and 29, up from approximately $10 million between October 18 and 22.[209] According to App Annie, Pokémon Go grossed an estimated $950 million in 2016.[210]
20172021
In February 2017, Pokémon Go was awarded being the best app at the Crunchies award event.[211] By February 2017, the game has been downloaded more than 650 million times worldwide, with a reported $1 billion in revenue made, becoming the fastest mobile game ever to do so.[212][213] By June 2017, the game was downloaded more than 750 million times,[214] with an estimated revenue of $1.2 billion according to Apptopia.[215] According to mobile app research firm Apptopia, approximately 60 million users were still playing the game a year after launch.[216] In May 2018, The Pokémon Company announced that the game reached over 800million downloads worldwide.[217] Forbes estimated that the game may have come close to 900million downloads by September 2018.[218] The top five countries where it has received the most downloads are the United States [21%], Brazil [9.3%], India [8.6%], Mexico [5.5%], and Indonesia [5%].[219] As of February 2019, the game has been downloaded by over 1billion people worldwide.[220]
A report from SuperData Research ranked Pokémon Go as the 9th highest grossing mobile game of 2017, with an annual revenue of $890 million.[221][222] Bloomberg estimated that Pokémon Go generated up to $2 billion in total revenue by late 2017.[223] Two years from its initial launch, analyst firm Sensor Tower estimated the game had grossed over $1.8 billion from in-app purchases, reporting that players around the world continue to spend $2 million each day.[224] SuperData Research reported that, in May 2018, Pokémon Go grossed $104 million in monthly revenue and had 147 million monthly active players, its highest since Summer 2016.[225] In July 2018, Pokémon Go was the top-grossing mobile app of the month.[226] Since the introduction of trading and friends features, Sensor Tower has reported that players spend an average of $2.5 million per day.[227][228] Apptopia reported that, by September 2018, the game had grossed over $2 billion from in-app purchases;[229] the top five countries where it has received the most revenue are Japan [$670 million], the United States [$550 million], Germany [$88 million], the United Kingdom [$86 million], and Australia [$52 million].[219] It was the fourth highest-grossing game of 2018, with $1.3 billion,[230] and in 2019 alone Pokémon Go earned $1.4 billion, according to Superdata Research, a division of Nielsen Media Research.[231] Pokémon Go live events earned $249 million in tourism revenue during 2019.[232] According to Sensor Tower in November 2020, Pokémon Go had accumulated nearly 600 million unique installs and generated almost $4.2 billion in revenue from in-game purchases via the iOS App Store and Google Play. Its largest market in terms of both installs and revenue is the United States, followed by Japan and Germany in revenue and by Brazil and Mexico in installs.[233]
During 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing restrictions on the ability of players to play Go outside their homes, Niantic implemented new features which allowed players to play the game from inside their homes, and this was credited with increasing its playerbase throughout the year despite the restrictions. Despite a brief drop early in the pandemic, the number of monthly active users of the game rose by 45 percent between January and August 2020, and the game's revenue in 2020 was the highest in its history, exceeding even its 2016 revenue.[234] The game generated more than $1 billion of revenue in the first 10 months of 2020 according to Sensor Tower,[233] and it was the top-grossing mobile game of December 2020.[235] Pokémon Go was one of the top five highest-grossing games of 2020 with an annual revenue of $1.92 billion according to SuperData Research,[236] bringing the game's cumulative revenue to $6.46 billion by 2020.[210][221][230][231][236] The game generated a further $641.6 million in the first half of 2021.[237]
Community and cultural impact
The game was referred to as a "social media phenomenon" which has brought people together from all walks of life.[238][239] 231 million people engaged in 1.1 billion interactions that mentioned Pokémon Go on Facebook and Instagram in the month of July.[240] Numerous media outlets referred to the surge in popularity as "Pokémon Go Mania", or simply "Pokémania".[241] The massive popularity of the game resulted in several unusual positive effects. For example, the game placed players where they can help catch criminals and report crimes in progress, although it has also placed some in harm's way,[243][244][245][246] and has even aided law enforcement's community relations, albeit with caveats.[248] Businesses also benefited from the nearby presence of PokéStops [or them being PokéStops themselves] with the concomitant influx of people,[249][250][251] and the intense exploration of communities has brought local history to the forefront. The game was also seen bringing its players to places of worship, as many Pokégyms are located there.[253] Despite some criticism by religious leaders, this was received positively by religious groups, who saw it as reminding adherents to come and pray.[254] Some establishments considered purchasing lures in the game to attract additional players to PokéStops on their property.[255] Within a week of its release, a secondary market emerged for the game, both for the resell of high-level accounts on Craigslist and PlayerUp, and for the sale of expert advice on Thumbtack.[256][257] Wireless provider T-Mobile US started an offer for free data for a year for Pokémon Go sessions,[258][259] and Yelp added a filter that only shows businesses which have a PokéStop nearby.[260][261] National parks across the United States saw an influx of visitors due to the game, with "hundreds or thousands" of people visiting the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C. on the weekend following Pokémon Go's release in the country.[262] Small museums with PokéStops placed at exhibits also reported increased attendance, such as the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Boca Raton, Florida.[255] Charity organizations also sought engagement from players, with animal shelters offering dog walks to people who want to hatch eggs.[263]
Eduardo Paes, then-mayor of Rio de Janeiro, stated that he hoped the app would be released in Brazil before the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics in the city[264] [and it was, on August 3],[265] and United States presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton mentioned the app during their 2016 election campaigns.[266][267] In late July 2016, during a public address, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, compared a political issue about the date of an incoming referendum as preposterous as the hunt for the Pokémon.[268] Shortly after the game's release, Bellator mixed martial artist Michael Page celebrated a knockout of his match opponent, Evangelista Santos by putting on a red Ash Ketchum-like hat and rolling a prop Poké Ball in Santos's direction.[269] On July 25, Dwayne Johnson released a promo video featuring MatPat and Ali-A with himself as a tough, rare Pokémon.[270]
The game was credited for popularizing AR,[271] and was praised by genderfluid groups for letting the players choose a "style" instead of "gender".[2] The game also had a positive impact among individuals with autism.[272][273][274] The "Pokémon Theme" from the animated series saw a 630% increase in listeners on music streaming platform Spotify during the month of the game's release.[275] Meanwhile, streaming services such as Hulu experienced an increased viewership of the Pokémon series and films.[276] Nintendo reported that sales of the 3DS Pokémon games rose as a result of the game's popularity.[277] A Twitch channel, Twitch Plays Pokémon Go, was created that mimics the crowd-played Twitch Plays Pokémon channel, allowing viewers to direct a virtual avatar in the game using an iPhone programmed to spoof its location.[278] Niantic later issued permanent bans to those who cheated the game by means such as GPS spoofing and bots.[279] Pokémon-themed pornography increased in popularity after the release of the game. xHamster, an adult video streaming website, reported that within 5 days of the game's release, Pokémon related terms were the most searched for videos.[280][281] Another adult video streaming website, Pornhub, reported that Pokémon related searches spiked 136%.[282][283] Pokémon Go was spoofed in the Maroon 5 music video, "Don't Wanna Know".[284] In the 2016 Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", the Doctor creates a distraction by "flood[ing] the downstairs with Pokémon", causing the people to run off with their cell phones.[285] In the episode "Looking for Mr. Goodbart" from the 28th season of The Simpsons, the people of Springfield become addicted to Peekimon Get, a parody of Pokémon Go.[286]
Go's release resulted in a resurgence in popularity for the Pokémon franchise as a whole.[287] The Pokémon Sun and Moon games for the Nintendo 3DS, released later in 2016, was the best-selling video game for the 3DS with over 16 million copies sold, and this was partly attributed to the new fans to the series brought in by Go.[288] In an interview, director of Sun and Moon Shigeru Ohmori remarked that the Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon sequels were designed partly to facilitate entry for newcomers to the franchise brought in by Go.[289] The first Pokémon games for the Nintendo Switch, Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, took significant inspirations from Go.[290][291] A line of official Go merchandise was released in November 2019.[292]
In addition to standard gameplay, the game has held several in-game and live events.[293][294][295] The first live event officially held by Niantic was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, in May 2017.[296] In July 2017, a community event was held in Grant Park, Chicago, in honor of the first anniversary of the game's release.[297] Despite the fact that almost no information about the event, including ticket prices and attractions, was released by Niantic ahead of the ticket sale, over 20,000 tickets sold out within a half hour.[298][299] During the event itself, attendees suffered connectivity issues and crashes, due to the heavy amount of localized cellular activity.[300] Afterwards, Niantic announced that they would refund everybody who bought a ticket, as well as give them $100 of in-game currency.[301] Following the event, around two dozen attendees filed suit against Niantic, seeking travel reimbursement.[302]
Following the event in Chicago, other events have been held in Chester,[303] Yokohama,[304] and San Jose.[305] In September 2017, a series of events named "Safari Zone" was held in Unibail-Rodamco shopping centers in Oberhausen, Paris and Barcelona, with events the following month in Copenhagen, Prague, Stockholm and Amstelveen.[306]
In January 2018, Niantic announced monthly community event Community Day which aims to get players to meet up in their local areas. During a multi-hour period, players can encounter more frequent wild spawns of a particular Pokémon, an exclusive move for that Pokémon [or its evolution], an increased probability for the shiny form of that Pokémon, and bonuses such as extra stardust or XP.[307] The Community Days in 2018 featured Pikachu [January 20], Dratini [February 24], Bulbasaur [March 25], Mareep [April 15], Charmander [May 19], Larvitar [June 16], Squirtle [July 8], Eevee [August 1112], Chikorita [September 22], Beldum [October 21], and Cyndaquil [November 10].[308]
Pokémon Go in Syria is a photography series published in 2016 by Syrian artist Khaled Akil.[309][310] Akil places Pokémon characters in destroyed Syrian streets as a reminder for a world lost behind the screen.[311][312][313] While Pokemon Go was trending worldwide,[314] Akil couldn't help but notice how the media forgot about the war in Syria. So he visualised his idea in the form of digital collages.[315][316][317][318][319] Khaled's Pokemon series quickly went viral across the globe after he posted it online.[320][321] This photography series was exhibited in various locations including the American University Museum.[322][323]
Criticism and incidents
The app was criticized for using locations such as cemeteries and memorials as sites to catch Pokémon,[324] including the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum,[325] the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,[326] the National September 11 Memorial & Museum,[327] Arlington National Cemetery,[328] the ANZAC War Memorial, and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.[329] Niantic later removed content from sensitive areas such as the Hiroshima Memorial and Holocaust Museum.[330] The game sparked complaints from Dutch company ProRail, who said that players entered their railway tracks,[331] and fire stations told players to not impede their staff by congregating outside.[332]
The game's distribution of PokéStops and gyms [derived from the portals in Ingress, Niantic's science fiction-themed AR game] was noted to be sparser in many minority neighborhoods in a reflection of American demographics.[333] Players in rural areas also complained about the lack of Pokémon spawns, PokéStops, and gyms in their area.[334][335][336] Pokémon Go was criticized for game accessibility issues by players with physical disabilities.[337][338] The AbleGamers Foundation COO, Steve Spohn, said that when Pokémon Go was compared to other mobile games, it "excludes disabled players to a significant degree".[339]
Police departments in various countries issued warnings, some tongue-in-cheek, regarding inattentive driving, trespassing, and being targeted by criminals due to being unaware of one's surroundings.[340][341] In the state of New York, sex offenders are banned from playing the app while on parole.[342] Bosnian players were warned to stay out of minefields left over from the 1990s Bosnian War.[343] In Russia, a 21-year-old video blogger, Ruslan Sokolovsky, was arrested in September 2016 for two months after playing Pokémon Go at the Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg,[344] and eventually received a suspended sentence for three and a half years in prison for charges of blasphemy.[345]
People have suffered various injuries from accidents related to the game.[346][347][348][349] In Japan, the first accident occurred within hours of the game's release.[350] The first death in Japan attributed to Pokémon Go occurred in late August 2016. A distracted driver playing the game killed one woman and seriously injured another. The 39-year-old farmer did not notice the women crossing a street and struck them with his truck. The woman died of a broken neck. Japan's National Police Agency said it was the 79th Pokémon Go-related accident in the country.[351] On August 11, 2016, a young girl in Cambodia was reportedly killed after being hit by a car while trying to capture a Pokémon on a road. The case was the first death related to Pokémon Go among Southeast Asian countries.[352] In January 2017, Chinese-American civilian Jiansheng Chen was shot dead while playing Pokémon Go.
Al-Azhar University in Cairo described the game as "harmful mania."[353] A Cossack leader declared that it "smacks of Satanism", Kuwait banned the game from government sites, Indonesian officials deemed it a national security threat, and in Israel the IDF banned the game from Army bases out of security considerations.[354] In Saudi Arabia, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars declared, in light of a 2001 fatwa banning the Pokémon card game as a form of gambling, that the electronic app required a new ruling. This was also followed by both Indian and Malaysian Islamic leaders telling Indian and Malaysian Muslims to avoid the game.[356][357]
During Thailand's 2016 constitutional referendum polling, Pokémon Go players were told to refrain from entering polling stations.[358] Thus the Thai National Broadcasting and Communications Commission intends to ask Niantic to remove Pokémon characters and PokéStops from locations such as government facilities, historic and religious sites, private property as well as dangerous spots such as narrow footpaths and rivers.[359] Cambodia has banned the game in a former genocide site after Pokémon players showed up at the site.[360] Vietnam has banned players from entering the government and defense offices.[361] The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications is also considering the game's negative impact to Vietnamese society, where many people left home at night, crossed the road or drove on the street with their eyes kept focused on phones, which brought the need to ban the game in the country.[362] Following the move by other Southeast Asian neighbors, the Philippines also banned the game in all administration offices.[363] According to a survey by Malaysian Employers Federation [MEF], around 4% of employers in Malaysia fired their staff for playing the game during working hours.[364]
Russia also voiced their concerns over the application, with Nikolay Nikiforov, the country's Minister of Communications and Mass Media, suspecting foreign intelligence agencies using the application to collect information, while some fundamentalist religious groups in the region claim it to be demonic.[365] The Supreme Council of Virtual Space in Iran officially banned the game in August 2016 over security concerns.[366] The same month, The Pentagon facility in U.S. restricted the use of the game on their property, citing security risks by collecting secret information.[367] In the United Kingdom, 290 police incidents were reported to have occurred in July 2016 in the country due to the game.[368] In September 2016, Niantic stopped supporting the CyanogenMod mobile operating system. This prevented users playing on CyanogenMod from playing the game from that point forward.[369]
In India, the Gujarat High Court issued a notice to Niantic, the developer of the popular AR-based game, on the grounds of "posing danger to public safety". The notice was issued on a PIL [Public Interest Litigation] seeking a ban on the location-based AR reality game in India. In addition, a second PIL was filed against the developers of Pokémon Go for hurting religious sentiments by showing images of eggs in places of worship of different religious groups. But the Indian Government refused to ban the game.[370]
Pokémon Go's targeted local advertising has been described by Shoshana Zuboff in Surveillance capitalism as an experiment that initiated from Google to move targeted advertising from the digital domain [cost per click] into the physical domain [cost per visit] by the use of sponsored locations. "In the end we recognize that the probe was designed to explore the next frontier: the means of behavioral modification. The game about the game is, in fact, an experimental facsimile of surveillance capitalisms design for our future."[371]
Third-party services
Multiple unofficial, third-party apps were created to correspond with Pokémon Go. Notable apps include "Poké Radar" and "Helper for Pokémon Go", where players can crowdsource much of the Pokémon that can be found in the game at a particular time.[372][373] At its peak of popularity, "Poké Radar" hit #2 on the Apple App Store, behind Pokémon Go itself.[374][375][376]
Another app, GoChat, which allows players to leave messages for other players at specific locations, accrued more than 1million downloads in five days and reached the top 10 in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.[377] However, the app's developer Jonathan Zarra chose to leave the app unmonetized and had financial trouble keeping the app's servers online until bringing on angel investor and board member Michael Robertson. After acquiring significant funding, the app reached over 2 million active users.[378][379] According to RiskIQ, at least 215 fake versions of the game were available by July 17, 2016. Several of these fake apps contained malicious programming and viruses.[380]
Launched on July 22, 2016, "Pokévision" enabled players to find exactly where Pokémon spawned and how much time was left until they despawned; the site used data hacked directly from the game.[381] In the five days following the website's launch, 27million unique visitors used the site.[382] On July 31, multiple search apps and sites, including Pokévision, were disabled as they violated Niantic's terms of service.[383]
COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Niantic responded by implementing new changes and features in the game which allowed players to easily play remotely.[384] However, starting on August 1, 2021, Niantic began rolling back these changes as part of their Exploration Bonus Updates. Players in New Zealand and the United States are the first to receive the post-pandemic changes, and gradually, they will be rolled out to the rest of the world "in accordance with recommendations from global health organizations."[384] In fear of violations in health and personal safety regulations, as well as negatively impacting players with disabilities, the company have since received heavy criticism from the playerbase [including top players Brandon Tan and Nick Oyzon] due to their reverting safety measures implemented during the pandemic, in which gym and Pokéstop interaction distances were increased from 40 to 80 metres. Despite increasing rates of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in various U.S. states [resulting in overflowing hospitals], Niantic are firm on not keeping the pandemic bonuses. Players began boycotting Pokémon Go since in first week of August 2021.[385][386][387][388]
On Twitter, the #HearUsNiantic started trending worldwide as fans and players voiced their censure towards Niantic's desicion in removing the pandemic bonuses.[389][390] Users on Reddit and YouTube have repeatedly vent their frustration.
A letter was sent to Niantic, in which responded to the community by stating that the pandemic changes will not stay.[391] As Niantic are an AR company, part of their business strategy is to sell user data by players after completing AR Mapping tasks where they can log their surroundings at marked PokéStops in their in-game maps.[392] The reduced distance means an increased potential for Niantic to generate more revenue. Another reason for their changes is for Niantic to preserve their image of being an AR tech giant; on their blog post they stated that it is their "mission" to "encourage outdoor exploration" and "to connect [people] to real places in the real world, and to visit places that are worth exploring."[393] Players have also speculated that Niantic are rolling back the pandemic bonuses in an effort to send players closer to sponsored businesses such as McDonald's [marked by a PokéStop or gym], from which Niantic have made a lot of money.[394][395][396]