Thousands of “Pokémon Go” players descend on Times Square to defeat Mewtwo

Invitations were sent to 2,000 Pokemon Go Players across the five boroughs of New York City through Community Ambassadors. (The event was invitation-only to avoid overcrowding in what is already one of the busiest places on Earth.) Players only knew about the themed raids taking place in the vicinity of Times Square, according to Mark Van Lommel, Scopely’s director of marketing communications.

At a certain point in the evening, notifications went out across the game asking players who had received tickets to head to Times Square for a special event, where they were treated to a live EDM concert by Loud luxuryafter which Mega Mewtwo Y took over the numerous screens and began a unified battle. (Mega Mewtwo Y is eventually defeated.)

The event was streamed live on all Pokémon websites and social media channels, and will be a special event this weekend Pokemon Go World Festival The virtual event will bring the same Mega Mewtwo Y gameplay experience to all trainers, without the Times Square screens. “Everyone around the world can play this game for free this weekend,” says Lommel.

Scopley says more than 800 million people have played the game Pokemon Go Over the past decade, more than a trillion Pokémon have been caught so far. In 2024, it had over 100 million active players, and in 2025 it generated $1 billion in revenue. The daily engagement time for active players is about 45 minutes, and players have walked more than 62 billion miles in search of PokéStops and Pokémon.

Kim Adams, Vice President of Game Development at Pokemon GoHe says that in the past two years, the company has gone from 50 community ambassadors — vetted volunteers who lead and organize local gaming groups in the real world — to more than 3,000 around the world.

As for live events — a notable feature that makes it unique among other mobile games —Pokemon Go It sold nearly 1 million tickets in 2024. The company says that since last year it has seen double-digit growth in engagement, with daily play time increasing by 10 percent and real-world exploration by 29 percent.

Being able to handle thousands of players participating in a raid at once wasn’t always smooth sailing. Howie Ragonton, a US Federal Aviation Administration employee who has been playing the game since its launch in 2016, says he remembers the first 2017 Pokemon Go Festival in Chicago, which was a disaster due to overloaded cellular networks and unstable servers. “They’ve learned over the years,” he says.

Photo: Julian Chocato