Pokémon GO: 1st Anniversary events detailed, over 750 million downloads since launch

In less than two months, Pokémon GO will be celebrating its 1st Anniversary, and Niantic has prepared quite a lot of surprises to celebrate. But first, a pretty impressive stat: Pokémon GO has already been download over 750 million times since launch. There’s no doubt it will reach 1 billion before the end of the year!

The first event for the Pokémon GO 1st Anniversary is the Solstice Event, which starts on June 13th and . It will feature Fire and Ice-type Pokémon, will give huge XP bonuses for throwing Poké Balls accurately, and will offer special disconts on Lucky Eggs.

After that, there will be a new update bringing new collaborative group gameplay features, that will allow you to “play Pokémon GO in fun new ways”. In preparation for those new features, Gyms will be temporarily disabled.

Now, on to the main event: the Pokémon GO Fest Chicago, which will be the first ever real-world Pokémon GO event. It will take place on July 22nd in downtown Chicago, Illinois (USA), at the Grand Park. More details will be shared at a later date, but Niantic promises “a ton of exciting festivities”.

Sounds exciting, no? Well, there’s a catch: you will need to buy a ticket to attend, and those will go on sale on June 19th (10AM PDT / 1PM EDT) on this website. In Europe, there will be various Pokémon GO celebrations across the continent, from June to September, in partnership with Unibail-Rodamco. A complete schedule will be available soon.

Finally, in Japan, the annual Pikachu Outbreak event in Yokohama (in August) will also get a special GO event (more details coming in the upcoming weeks).

Source: Niantic