The virtual-reality treasure hunt for Pokémon has taken over the gaming world – and also, it appears, social media use.
Figures from the US indicate that Pokémon GO is as popular as Twitter and has surpassed Tinder usage.
Super-imposed onto real-life locations, game players must follow Pokémon through their screens and must try to 'catch them all'. It's reignited the Pokémon fanfare that was once alive through game cards, with 60% of downloaders playing the game on a daily basis. The average amount of time gamers spend playing Pokémon GO is 43 minutes, 23 seconds – which is higher than Whatsapp, Instagram and Snapchat. The success that the game has generated has seen an incredible upsurge of $7.5 billion in Nintendo's market value.
However, Pokémon GO is also at the center of a contentious debate, with many issuing warnings over the game's access to geolocation services on your phone. The safety of gamers is a huge concern for many authorities, as rumours spread that criminals have used the app to lure gamers into a secluded location to carry out robberies. Incidents of this kind have happened in Missouri with Sgt. Bill Stringer offering words of caution. “Using the geolocation feature,” Stringer explains, “the robbers were able to anticipate the location and level of seclusion of unwitting victims.”
Whether Pokémon GO will only be a huge, short-term fan craze that will gradually run out of steam, well, only time will tell.

via GIPHY