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---
title: Epic Video 'Shows Huge Mob in Taipei Racing After Pokémon'
description: The unauthenticated video could, if confirmed, be indicative of just how all-consuming the smartphone game has become
canonical: https://time.com/4460911/pokemon-go-taipei-stampede-snorlax-mob-xinbeitou-taiwan/
author: Nash Jenkins
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article:published_time: 2016-08-22T09:32:59.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:40.143Z
og:title: Epic Video 'Shows Huge Mob in Taipei Racing After Pokémon'
og:description: Thousands-strong crowd races through streets in surreal but unauthenticated clip
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twitter:description: Thousands-strong crowd races through streets in surreal but unauthenticated clip
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# Pokémon Go May Have Just Shown Us What the End of the World Looks Like

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Mq4MoLNW.m3u8" -->
## Video: Driver Playing Pokemon Go Crashes Into Police Car.

[Watch (HLS stream): Driver Playing Pokemon Go Crashes Into Police Car.](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Mq4MoLNW.m3u8) (0:51)

![Driver Playing Pokemon Go Crashes Into Police Car.](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Mq4MoLNW/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2016-07-20. A man drove into a cop car while playing Pokémon Go on his phone in Baltimore on Monday._


by 

[Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/)


## Nash Jenkins


Aug 22, 2016 9:32 AM UTC

by 

[Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/)


## Nash Jenkins


Aug 22, 2016 9:32 AM UTC

A surreal video that purports to show thousands of [Pokémon Go](http://time.com/4400791/pokemon-go-iphone-android-nintendo/) players in Taiwan stampeding after a Snorlax — a relatively rare creature in the Pokémon pantheon — could, if confirmed, be indicative of just how all-consuming the smartphone game has become.

The unverified video was [first posted on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/maggiejoypig/videos/1352812231398943/) on Saturday by a user in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, and later posted on YouTube. In it, we see a mob pushing through an intersection in what looks like the city’s Xinbeitou district with the urgency and intensity one usually expects of marathons or attempts to escape alien invasions or terrorist attacks. There was a Snorlax waiting for them, it is alleged, and so they took off en masse.

While TIME has not authenticated the clip, [Chinese media reports](http://taiwan.huanqiu.com/roll/2016-08/9341622.html) say that the Xinbeitou area has become a daily focus for “thousands” of players looking to catch the particularly exotic Pokémon that appear to populate the surrounding streets. Overcrowding is so intense, reports say, that the civil-defense brigade has had to be called in, along with police reinforcements from neighboring areas.

The Pokémon Go craze has been causing disturbances in many parts of Asia. In the Thai capital, Bangkok, police have threatened to arrest pedestrians and motorists [playing the game on major roads](http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1067812/police-launch-pokemon-blitz) because of the number of accidents the game has caused. In Cambodia, players have caused outrage by chasing Pokémon in the [Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum](http://time.com/4446135/pokemon-go-phnom-penh-tuol-sleng-cambodia/).


## Transcript

[ BLANK_AUDIO ] He hit my parked patrol car. 10- 4 [ INAUDIBLE ] Advise [ INAUDIBLE ] To respond to this location. Ten four, two adam nine? You guys okay? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Two adam nine. You okay? Okay, what's the location? 2901 [ UNKNOWN ] avenue. [ UNKNOWN ] That's what I get for playing this dumb [ UNKNOWN ] game. 10- 4. And were you in the vehicle, sir? Are you okay? Are you okay? I'm so sorry. No, nobody was in the car. [ CROSSTALK ] You guy's okay? Yeah, we're

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