Pokemon GO has taken the dream of venturing out into the world to collect Pokemon and battle gym leaders a reality. The augmented reality game developed and published by mobile developer Niantic released on July 6, 2016. Since then Pokemon GO has given people a reason to get out of the house and go outside for more than just fresh air — and it looks like players of the game are looking to give back.
This year Niantic hosted for the second year in a row a series of Earth Day cleanup events around the world during April. Over 17,000 players banded together and collected over 145 tons (290,000 lbs/1315,42 kgs) of trash, which exceeded Niantic expectations. For those wondering logistically on how this was handled, Niantic scheduled limited time special events to encourage players to clean up.
While wanting the world to be a better place was incentive enough, Niantic added a little something to sweeten the deal. If 2,000 players joined the event, then more ground type Pokemon would appear in the wild. If 5,000 or more players joined the event, Shiny Diglets would appear, and if 7,000 players joined, then Groudon would appear in raids. The Earth day event also included an incentive of double the stardust and candy.
Forty-one countries participated in these Earth Day events, totaling in 41,000 hours of trash collected. In fact, Niantic was so proud they posted this their website:
“Players have made a massive impact in their communities around the world. One group in Taiwan turned their cleanup learnings into an educational program at Wucyuan Elementary School, a local school. They taught students about how greenhouse gases influence the Earth and discussed what we can do collectively to help reduce waste.”
Pokemon GO continues to make an impact, involving its players in terrific community-driven events. And this news is most certainly a breath of fresh air, especially considering some of the less favorable (if only tangental) news coverage the fanbase got earlier this year.
Pokemon GO is available now on mobile devices for Android and iOS.
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