--- description: Behold, Pokemon Go is now a thing, which when you consider Pokemon's the third-biggest franchise in video games history isn't so surprising. title: This Is How Insanely Big 'Pokémon Go' Is Already image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc807364ddd5d8987/69889b65f887dc3cfae9694a/screen-shot-2016-07-11-at-8-47-40-am.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # This Is How Insanely Big 'Pokémon Go' Is Already by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 11, 2016 2:46 PM CUT  Niantic by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 11, 2016 2:46 PM CUT Bigger than Tinder and on its way to smashing Twitter’s “daily active users” ceiling. That’s how nuts this _Pokémon_ _Go_ augmented reality experiment has become since it was unceremoniously loosed on the iOS and Android app stores on July 6. The game, which claps a virtual world over our own using realtime GPS data, encourages players to dash around their locales ferreting out franchise critters with silly names like Bulbasaur and Jigglypuff. There might be one lurking in your bathroom shower, or hiding behind your trashcan outside, or across the street shuffling across the neighbor’s porch, or up the road in a grocery store tap-dancing on a pile of papayas. You’ll eventually find Pokestops or Pokegym superimposed on real-world landmarks, join teams of other players and do battle with other squads to maintain control of some precious slice of virtual real estate. Behold, _Pokémon Go_ is now a thing. Which, when you consider Pokémon was already the third-biggest franchise in video games history (after _Tetris_ and Nintendo’s own _Mario_ games), maybe isn’t so surprising. As they say, ya gotta catch ’em all, even where–and let’s just call these examples curious outliers for now–that’s meant [invading police stations](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/pokemon-go-police-ask-players-to-stop-trying-to-catch-sandshrew-in-darwin-police-station-a7127616.html "undefined"), [stumbling on real dead bodies](http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36757858/pokemon-go-player-finds-dead-body-in-wyoming-river-while-searching-for-a-pokestop "undefined"), training [at the Westboro Baptist Church](http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/11/tech/pokemon-go-crazy-events/ "undefined") and [being ambushed by armed robbers](https://www.yahoo.com/tech/police-believe-pok-mon-used-103232686.html "undefined"). It sounds crazy because that _is_ crazy, though it stands to reason the majority are having the opposite experience: playing studio Niantic’s game perfectly safe and sound. The Tinder/Twitter figures describing all these players come [from data aggregator SimilarWeb](https://www.similarweb.com/blog/pokemon-go "undefined"), which adds that the game managed to colonize over 5% of Android devices in the U.S. just 48 hours after release. More than 60% of those who’ve downloaded it use it daily (about 3% of all U.S. Android users), says SimilarWeb, and it’s that figure (“Daily Active Users”) SimilarWeb sees as rising to eclipse Twitter’s engagement figures. Big doesn’t necessarily mean well-crafted — I have mixed feelings about the way _Pokémon_ _Go_ actually plays. But you’ll brook no argument from me that it’s a phenomenon (how long-lived, or how much nuttier the stories are going to get…well, stay tuned). And it’s had me dashing everywhere with my almost-four-year-old son, from grassy knolls around my neighborhood, to cornfields over six feet high, to a stick-cluttered beach along the Mississippi river. If you’ve been wondering when the next augmented/virtual reality shoe would drop, pay attention, because we may be witnessing a Tunguska scale event. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4400815/pokemon-go-nintendo-niantic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4400815/pokemon-go-nintendo-niantic/"},"headline":"This Is How Insanely Big 'Pokémon Go' Is Already","datePublished":"2016-07-11T14:46:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:50:13.518Z","description":"In Pokémon, augmented reality may have found its ideal partner","url":"https://time.com/4400815/pokemon-go-nintendo-niantic/","keywords":["Tech","Smartphones","Video Games","Android","Nintendo","iOS","Pokemon","augmented reality","pokemon go"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc807364ddd5d8987/69889b65f887dc3cfae9694a/screen-shot-2016-07-11-at-8-47-40-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc807364ddd5d8987/69889b65f887dc3cfae9694a/screen-shot-2016-07-11-at-8-47-40-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pokemon Go","caption":"","creditText":"Niantic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4400815/pokemon-go-nintendo-niantic/","name":"This Is How Insanely Big 'Pokémon Go' Is Already"}}]}] ```