'Pokémon Go' players have caught a staggering number of Pocket Monsters since July

By Gabe Gurwin December 21, 2016

200,000 trips around the Earth!

Pokémon Go might no longer be the pervasive, all-encompassing obsession that it was for so many of us over the summer, but Niantic’s game has managed to accumulate some incredibly impressive statistics since its July release. In just five months, the game’s community has managed to capture 88 billion Pokémon: That’s more than 12 for every person on Earth.

Niantic announced the impressive feat on its Pokémon Go Live site, adding that the community has also collectively walked “more than 8.7 billion kilometers,” which is long enough to go around the Earth more than 200,000 times. This is up dramatically from September, when the game’s players had accumulated about 4.6 billion collective kilometers walked.

If you’ve stopped playing Pokémon Go — perhaps in favor of Nintendo’s new Super Mario Run game — now might be the best time ever to jump back in. Monsters from second-generation games like Gold and Silver have begun showing up, though they seem to be available in very limited quantities so far. Pichu, Togepi, and Igglybuff are among those spotted hatching from the eggs you can receive from Pokéstops.

To celebrate the holidays, you can now catch a Santa-hat-wearing Pikachu. Don’t expect the Christmas rat to be around forever, though — you’ll only be able to catch it until December 29, at which point we assume they’ll switch it out with a New Year’s Eevee.

Pokémon Go certainly has more work to be done before it will reach its full potential. Back in August, Niantic CEO John Hanke heavily implied that trainer vs. trainer battles would be implemented into the game, as well as the ability to trade Pokémon with other players. Unless people plan to take a trip around the entire planet to capture region-specific monsters, this seems to be the only way for a trainer to have a complete collection. Right now, however, we can’t catch ’em all.

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