Pokémon GO Players Encouraged to Get Outside, Give Back to Their Community and More as Game Celebrates 10th Anniversary (Exclusive)

Over 800 million players worldwide have gathered to search for Pokémon, with more than 1,000 players simultaneously battling in recent Times Square event

NEED TO KNOW

• Pokémon GO, the mobile phone game that brought catching them all to everyday life, is celebrating its 10th anniversary
• PEOPLE spoke with some of the game’s most passionate players about what they love about their Pokémon Community
• Pokémon GO has inspired 800 million+ players to explore the world together

The community fostered by Pokémon GO has been life-changing for some of the game’s esteemed players.

As the mobile game celebrates its 10th anniversary amid a wider celebration of the franchise’s 30th anniversary, PEOPLE spoke with some of the players who have most felt the impacts of incorporating the location-based Pokémon game into their everyday lives.

For Community Ambassadors Grandma Deb & Grandpoppy Jack, their grandchildren got them interested in playing when the game first came out, unaware that their grandparents would become more invested than them.

“We knew there was a Pokémon card game, but we didn’t know anything about Pokémon GO, and our grandkids got us started. They were up for the summer and we downloaded the game. And then the whole summer, they were here and we played every single day,” Jack tells PEOPLE. “Being with the grandkids, it made it fun for all of us. It was a learning curve for everyone, and we just really enjoyed it.”

Deb adds, “I knew nothing about Pokémon. It’s just when they wanted to play, it was, ‘Okay, download it.’ And then we roamed everywhere. We walked their little legs off.”

After the kids went home, Deb and Jack stuck with it, describing early events as “lots of fun” and “pretty wild.”

“We started out with a small group and it grew,” Jack says. “And now we have friends all over the world. We’ve met people who [we] would have never met. You get some people with different aspects of what they like about the game, and everyone just seems to enjoy it. It’s a family. It’s a worldwide family that we’re part of.”

It’s been exciting for their group to get a new park in their area to play in, eliminating the need to travel throughout the area to find a good place for long-term play.

“Our community, we finally got a big park. We had to travel to places to catch, then go back to a different old town that had a lot of Pokéstops to get supplies. So we had a big park open here in town, closer to home. That’s when things really came together…” Deb explains.

“And then we got our areas at the campsite, which added more Pokéstops and gems in Power Spots, so it’s really exciting,” she continues. “It’s one of the best places in Alabama to play. We get people coming from the Tennessee area to play. It’s great to see old community members and new community members. It’s something you can’t pass up.”

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Deb adds, “It’s just motivation. Even when you don’t want to do it, and you don’t want to leave the house and do everything, you’ve just got to.”

“If there’s a new Pokémon out, we need to go!” Jack laughs.

For Ruth Wallace, playing Pokémon GO also started with family, as she was encouraged by her son to play.

“I am married with a teenager. When my teenager was about 12 years old, he kept bothering me, ‘Mom, you should play Pokémon GO. You should play,’ when the game first came out. And I kept telling them, ‘No, I don’t want to play another phone game.’ I kept putting it off, and then finally, I got it,” Ruth tells PEOPLE.

“Then we made a group on Campfire and someone said, ‘You should become a Community Ambassador,’ so I applied. Now, I’m running one of the largest groups in Michigan,” she says.

One of the hallmarks of the community Ruth leads is that they try to find ways to give back in areas where they gather.

“Our group just keeps growing and growing. They’re like a family to me, basically. Right now, we’re getting ready for the global GO Fest, which is coming up on July 11th, and we coordinated with the city. We’re gonna do a large food drive,” she shares.

“We like to do community things along with Pokémon GO. We’ve done a drive for animal control. We’re thinking about hosting a blood drive for the Red Cross in the future,” Ruth continues, noting, “It’s really neat to help in some way. It got me thinking about how I can do community things and help my community. I never thought about that before Pokémon GO.”

Seeing the good in people is special for Ruth, who admits, “I used to be a very shy person and battle off and on with depression. And when I started playing Pokémon GO, it helped me tremendously.”

“It got me to go out and walk at the local parks and visit different areas that I would have never even went to at all. That helped me meet other people. And once I became Community Ambassador, it opened me up. Now, I talk to everybody. I’m not shy anymore,” she explains.

Having the community’s support also means a lot to Ruth, who was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy shortly after becoming a Community Ambassador.

“It has helped me tremendously with making sure I get out and walk as much as I can when I can. It also helped me make friends with my friend Dawn. We met through Pokémon Go. She also has medical issues. We get together and go out, and we just went to GO Fest in Chicago together,” she shares.

“Our community’s growing; I’m seeing new faces all the time,” she says. “There’s community members that were very shy, also, and weren’t coming out of their cars. At first, they stayed back, and now they’re coming out and talking and having a great time.”

“We all come together for one thing, Pokémon. It doesn’t matter what nationality or what religion we are. None of that matters. We just care about playing Pokémon.”

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, yesterday — in a surprise event — Pokémon GO transformed one of the world’s most iconic locations into an immersive real-world game board. Trainers united to take down the legendary Pokémon Mega Mewtwo Y in a synchronized, real-world raid battle with more than 1,000 players battling simultaneously, one of the largest in-person raids in Pokémon GO history.

Trainers around the world can take part in Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Global, starting July 11 at 10:00 a.m. and running through July 12 at 7:00 p.m. (local time). 

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