It’s hard to overstate just how far Pokemon GO has come since its debut in 2016. What started as a simple mobile app encouraging people to walk outside and catch Pokemon has become one of the most enduring mobile gaming phenomena in history. Now, as Pokemon GO heads into its 10th anniversary, Niantic is clearly gearing up for what it has officially labeled a “massive year” of celebration, with plenty of events, both in-game and out, that give fans yet another handful of excuses to come together.
Part of that vision has already been shared directly by Pokemon GO VP of Product Michael Steranka during a recent interview with GameRant at Pokemon GO Tour: Kalos in Los Angeles. Steranka certainly didn’t mince words when discussing what the anniversary means to the team. Reflecting on the challenge of sustaining a game for a decade and Niantic’s plans to honor its legacy and the commitment of its fans, he emphasized that Pokemon GO players “have a lot to be excited about” this year, and although the 10th anniversary celebration may already be underway, it’s only just getting started.
Niantic Has Big Plans for Pokemon GO’s 10th Anniversary
To better understand why 2026 is such a huge year for Pokemon GO, it helps to consider just how much the game has grown over the last decade. When it launched in 2016 with a limited Pokedex and a handful of gyms now features hundreds upon hundreds of unique species, diverse battle systems, live seasonal content, and large-scale global events that rival even some of gaming’s most traditional conventions. Reaching a 10-year milestone is rare for a live-service mobile game, and Niantic seems intent on marking it in a way that accurately reflects what the game has achieved in terms of both its scale and its community. Needless to say, Pokemon GO‘s 10th anniversary is something that has been on the team’s mind for quite some time, as Steranka explained:
“As someone who’s been thinking about and working on our 10-year anniversary plans for the last two-and-a-half, three years, this is definitely going to be a big moment for us. There’s nothing specific that I can share right now, but I’m very much looking forward to this summer. I think our players have a lot to be excited about. We have our annual GO Fest experience taking place over the course of late May through June. Our anniversary itself is in July. There’s the Pokemon XP experience in San Francisco in August. There’s just so much that a Pokemon fan has to be excited about coming up and those are only the things that people know about right now. So, I think this is going to be a massive, massive year for Pokemon Go fans and just Pokemon fans more broadly.”
As Steranka intimated, the celebration is kicking off early and then sprawling across much of the year. The official 10th Anniversary event for Pokemon GO began on February 9, 2026, running through March 31, giving players two full months of themed bonuses, special spawns, and unique research challenges tied to the milestone.
However, the anniversary isn’t just about what’s going on within Pokemon GO but about bringing players together, and there may be no better proof of that than Pokemon GO Fest 2026. Dating back to 2017, GO Fest has become Pokemon GO‘s biggest annual real-world celebration, drawing tens of thousands of players and fans to parks and city streets around the globe. In 2026, Niantic has announced that GO Fest will take place across three continents as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations.
Pokemon GO Fest 2026 Locations and Dates:
- TOKYO, JAPAN: May 29 to June 1, with citywide gameplay starting May 25
- CHICAGO, USA: June 5 to June 7, with citywide gameplay starting June 4
- COPENHAGEN, DENMARK: June 12 to June 14, with citywide gameplay starting June 11
This is already a massive celebration for Pokemon GO, but for the game’s veterans, it might mean something more. 2026 marks the first year Pokemon GO Fest returns home to Grant Park, Chicago, where the very first GO Fest took place almost a decade ago. GO Fest is often more than just an in-person event, though, and Niantic has announced that GO Fest Global will return later in the summer for players who can’t attend the event in person. If nothing else, this just shows the developer’s desire to do whatever it takes to bring people together through their shared interest in Pokemon GO—a philosophy that has been the game’s heart since its inception. Steranka made sure to emphasize that much during our conversation with him:
“It’s almost become a little bit of a meme online that when Pokemon Go came out in 2016 was the last time we had world peace. I think that that type of magic hasn’t gone away in Pokemon Go. So, what I would like for players to look forward to is knowing that if you play this game, if you’re part of this community, that’s the type of feeling that we try to foster every day through the game. And that’s my personal commitment to our players, that I want to continue finding ways to make it feel like when you play Pokemon Go, you are part of this oasis where everybody is just in this super positive community together where you can help each other out and break through some of the challenges that you might be experiencing in the real world outside.”
If Steranka’s comments are any indication, Pokemon GO‘s 10th anniversary isn’t just some nostalgic victory lap, but rather a reaffirmation of what the game is supposed to represent. Yes, there are months of events, global meetups, and in-game bonuses to mark the occasion, but the bigger takeaway is the philosophy behind them. Niantic has spent years preparing for this moment, and with GO Fest’s return to Chicago, the global rollout across three continents, and the continued expansion of shared experiences like GO Fest Global all point to a deliberate effort to recapture and amplify that original spark from 2016. The anniversary is a celebration, but it’s also a reminder of why the game had such a strong impact on players in the first place.
More importantly, it shows that Niantic views Pokemon GO as far from finished. A decade in, the team is choosing to treat this milestone as a foundation for what comes next. If the goal is to sustain that “oasis” feeling Steranka described, then the 10th anniversary of the mobile game is more about investing in the future than merely celebrating the past. Bringing players together across cities, countries, and generations is still the primary mission, and 2026 appears designed to reinforce that identity on a global scale. For longtime trainers and newcomers alike, this is a massive year, but it’s also the beginning of whatever Pokemon GO‘s next chapter looks like.
- Released
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July 6, 2016
- Engine
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Unity
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
