Pokémon GO: The Best Mobile Game of the Year - How to Download and Play

One way that you'll be able to playwith your friends in Pokémon GO is by giving Gifts. When you spin a Photo Discat a PokéStop or Gym, you have a chance of collecting a special Gift. Althoughyou can't open these Gifts yourself, you can send them to someone on yourFriend List. The Gifts contain a variety of helpful items (and occasionallyspecial Eggs) and come with a postcard showing where the Giftwas collected.

At a certain point in the game,you'll be asked to join one of three teams. Once you join a team, you'll gainthe ability to assign your Pokémon to open Gym locations or to a Gym where ateammate has already assigned a Pokémon. Each player can place only one Pokémonper Gym, so you'll need to work together with other members of your team tobuild up a strong defense. Like PokéStops, Gyms can be found at real-worldlocations.

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Pokémon GO is available for downloadat no charge on the App Store and Google Play. Pokémon GO is free to play, withloads of fun things to do and Pokémon to discover at every turn. For playerswho want to enhance their Pokémon GO experience even more, certain items andfeatures can be accessed via in-app purchases. Players can spend real money onPokéCoins, the in-game currency of Pokémon GO. PokéCoins can then be exchangedfor power-ups, extra items, and more.

The game uses real-life locations to encourage players to go out in search of Pokemon. You may download it free of charge, but there are also specific in-app purchases to boost your experience with power-ups and extra items.

Gyms and PokéStops are two other places where players can battle with one another and acquire valuable items like eggs and potions. Individuals can form teams and compete in gyms against other teams as a unit. In addition, players can increase the strength of their Pokémon and help them evolve as they progress through the game.

For people who downloaded the game either by side-loading the APK or changing their iOS region, uninstalling the app, reinstalling the official version and signing back in should guarantee any progress you've made has not been lost.

You need to configure your phone to allow apps to be installed from third-party sites, rather than the official Play store. Go to Settings, Security and allow 'Unknown sources' by switching the option on. Go to the Pokémon Go APK site, select 'Download APK', press OK on the warning message pop-up and the app will download.

Apple users who still can't download the app in their country will need to change the region linked to their App Store account to one where Pokémon Go is available. Go to Settings on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, select iTunes & App Store and tap your Apple ID. You will need to sign out if you are already signed in otherwise Apple will not successfully switch the region.

Pokémon Go revenue in the first month broke records, at $207 million. This was despite its launch being staggered, with its Japanese release not occurring until two weeks after general release. It was also the most downloaded, topped most international charts, and grossed $100 million in a mere 20 days.

How to install Pokémon GO on Android devices

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Now, thanks to a suggestion from Reddit user throwaway96388, players may be able to conserve battery and cut their data usage down using one simple trick. Since Pokémon Go uses Google Maps API, players can simply download the maps from Google and use them offline. Players have reported that after trying the method, they noticed an increase in battery life conservation and decrease in data usage, but mentioned that phones were still dying anywhere between three and six hours of continuous usage.

In order to download the maps and use them offline, all players have to do is open the Google Maps app on their phone, go into settings, click the option for offline maps, hit the plus sign and add their location. Even with the maps being offline, players will still have full access to the game through their data. Players should also notice a decrease in the amount of data needed to run the game.

Update: Pokemon Go is now officially available in Canada, the UK, and most of Europe. So, all you have to do is go to the App Store and download Pokémon Go now. If Pokemon Go still isn't in your country, read on!

Updating Pokémon Go is just as easy as downloading it, but you'll need to perform these steps manually each time a new version is released. And keep your ear to iMore, since the App Store won't automatically tell you when the app has been updated.

Now that we're done with the introductory tutorials for Pokémon Go, let's get ready to start playing the game! The first step is to download and install the game on your mobile device. Preferably, you are using an iPhone or phone that uses the Google Android operating system, as Pokémon Go is optimized to be used by those devices.

To download and install Pokémon Go, turn on your device and open its app store. From there, search for "pokemon go" and select the app named "Pokémon Go" developed by Niantic Inc. Tap "Install", and then tap "Accept" to give the app permissions on your device. When the app finishes downloading, tap "Open" to run it.

(NOTE: You may be asked to log into your Google account or Apple account before continuing, in order to add a payment method. You can usually just skip this, as you won't need to pay to download and install Pokémon Go. Pokémon Go has in-app purchases; however, they aren't necessary to enjoy the game. See our Pokémon Go Prices article for more details.)

If you were able to follow these instructions, congratulations! You have successfully downloaded and installed Pokémon Go on your mobile device. Our next tutorial will show you how to sign up for a Pokémon Go account.

Now that Pokemon Go has been officially released, there are reports of virtual Pokemon being captured around the globe. Some are even coming from countries where the augmented reality game is yet to be released. Do you wonder how?

For Android phone users it's actually quite simple. We detail below the steps you can take to download and play the game, even though it's not yet officially available. And we explain a bit about it, including some of the funniest places where Pokemon have been found in the real world.

It is "coming soon" to other countries. However, you can also download it anywhere you like, even without official support, on an Android device if you follow our handy guide or iPhone if you go through several steps.

The other way is less permanently but also not ideal. You can set yourself up with an iTunes account in a country that does have the app on the App Store, then download it "legitimately". Often you need a credit card from the country the account is based in, but it is possible to do it without.

The time it took Pokémon Go to reach 50 million Android downloads is a record across games tracked by Sensor Tower, which put the news into context by comparing it to other Android top performers. The next-fastest was Color Switch, a puzzle game, and Slither.io comes in third, but those took 77 and 81 days, respectively, to pass the 50 million mark, which is a far cry from the short 19 days that Pokémon Go took to reach the same milestone.

Pokémon Go was released to mixed reviews; critics praised the concept but criticized technical problems. It was one of the most used and profitable mobile apps in 2016, having been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide by the end of the year. It is credited with popularizing location-based and AR technology, promoting physical activity, and helping local businesses grow due to escalated foot traffic. However, it attracted controversy for contributing to accidents and creating public nuisances. Various governments expressed concerns about security, and some countries regulate its use. The game had over 147 million monthly active users by May 2018, over a billion global downloads by early 2019, and grossed more than $6 billion in revenue by 2020.

Although the game is free to play, it supports in-app purchases, where players can purchase additional Poké Balls and other in-game items.[14] These items include Incense, which attracts Pokémon to the player as they move for sixty minutes, Lure Modules, which players use at PokéStops to attract Pokémon to their current location near the PokeStop, and Lucky Eggs, which double experience points gained for a thirty-minute period from use. All Pokémon are displayed with a Combat Power, which is a rough measure of how powerful that Pokémon is in battle. Generally, as players level up, they catch Pokémon with higher CP and Pokémon are somewhat harder to catch.[15] The player can check how strong their Pokémon are by the "Appraisal" system.

In mainland China, Google services are banned by the Great Firewall, whereas the GPS function in the game is blocked by Niantic. Players of Pokémon Go in China have to download the game with App Store IDs from other regions and use VPN to access Google services in order to load the game, and some even use a GPS spoofing app to bypass the GPS blocking. Some players also downloaded a clone app called City Spirit Go, which was released shortly after Pokémon Go's beta test in Japan.[128] As of 2020, the official game is still unplayable in most parts of China with GPS modules being blocked in-game.

Pokémon Go rapidly rose the American iOS App Store's "Top Grossing" and "Free" charts.[183][184] The game has become the fastest game to top the App Store and Google Play, beating Clash Royale,[185] and it became the most downloaded app on the App Store of any app in their first week.[186] Within two days of release, it was installed on more than 5% of Android devices in the United States, according to SimilarWeb,[187] According to Sensor Tower, the game was downloaded more than 10 million times within a week of release, becoming the fastest such app to do so,[188] and reached 15 million global downloads by July 13.[189] According to SurveyMonkey the game became the most active mobile game in the United States ever with 21 million active users on July 12, eclipsing Candy Crush Saga's peak of 20 million.[190] By July 15, approximately 1.3 million people were playing the game in the Netherlands, despite the app not being officially released in the country at the time.[191] On the day of release in Japan, more than 10 million people downloaded the game,[192] including 1.3 million in the first three hours.[193] By July 31, the game exceeded 100 million downloads worldwide, according to App Annie and Sensor Tower.[160][194] On August 8, Pokémon Go reached the milestone of over 100 million downloads on Google Play alone after barely 33 days on the market.[195][196]