Pokemon Go celebrates its third anniversary of its global release date.
Pokemon Go officially turns three years old today! Well, for Australia, it’s today. For the rest of us, July 6 is the big day. And with Pokemon Go’s anniversary update last week, we’re ready to celebrate its birthday in Pocket Monster style.
Serebii.net, through one of its affiliated accounts, was the first to wish Pokemon Go a “happy third birthday” this morning on Twitter. Serebii is well known for its up-to-date information on all things Pokemon, and this is no different. The website waited until exactly midnight in Australia.
It is now midnight in Australia. On this day 3 years ago, Pokémon GO was sneak released in a global rollout, starting with Australia. Happy 3rd birthday Pokémon GO https://t.co/BO3BHWbDe4 pic.twitter.com/GCeHVAsKav
— Today in Pokémon History by Serebii.net (@SerebiiOTD) July 5, 2019
Keen-eyed viewers will probably note that Pokemon Go already announced its anniversary event last week. While true that the official festivities already began, the official release date is July 6, 2016. The game itself was around much longer than that. Well excited and in beta, Pokemon Go feels older than it is. As the tweet suggests, the game launched all over the world, beginning in Australia, the app released quietly on July 6, 2016, and spread to the rest of the world as the hours ticked down.
As someone that eagerly anticipated the release of the game, I remember the buggy, stuttering start. Plagued by crashes and odd timeouts, the game struggled to take off, supported only by the popularity of the franchise. Even looking back at the app store on iOS finds some negative reviews from the early ages of the game. Niantic and Nintendo, however, were quick to address these and smooth the game out for a more enjoyable experience overall. It remains popular with an average of 147 million active users in May 2019.
Pokemon Go is happy to celebrate in style with many anniversary specific events, including new Pokemon, new shiny Pokemon that were not previously available, and additional bonuses. You can find more detail about the anniversary celebration here. Enjoy the festivities and happy birthday, Pokemon Go!
