Players caught more than 1.5 billion Pokémon during Pokémon Go Fest 2021

Pokémon Go Fest 2021 is officially over and players around the world caught more than 1.5 billion Pokémon during the event, up from just under one billion in 2020. 

Combined across both days of the event, players were busy encountering new Pokémon, acting as a concert director during Special Research tasks, and dealing with the Mythical Pokémon Hoopa causing legendary mischief with the raid rotations. 

Go Fest 2021 was a massive hit. Niantic’s second year running it as a global event with hybrid mechanics for players at home and outside increased the number of players who were able to participate. And the habitat rotation actually worked as intended this year, too. 

Over the course of the weekend, players caught more than 1.5 billion Pokémon, spun more than 900 million PokéStops, completed over 23 million raids, and walked a collective 125 million kilometers.

And even though Go Fest is technically over, players unlocked a lot of bonus content during the event that will be going live soon. 

Starting on July 23, the Ultra Unlock bonuses will begin because players were able to finish all 24 of the global challenges hosted in the Global Challenge Arena during Go Fest 2021. This means three additional weeks of themed content will run from July 23 to Aug. 31, featuring more new content and surprises. 

• Ultra Unlock Part One: Time—July 23 to Aug. 3:
  • “The flow of time will be disrupted! Pokémon from various eras will be appearing more often.”
• Ultra Unlock Part Two: Space—Aug. 6 to 17
  • “Space itself will be distorted as Pokémon from various places appear!”
• Ultra Unlock Part Three: ???—Aug. 20 to 31
  • “Will these abnormal events continue to happen? What awaits us during Part 3? Stay tuned, Trainers—we’ll keep you posted on our findings!”

We still don’t know much about the events right now, but Niantic has already teased that the Time Ultra Unlock week will add shiny Cranidos and Shieldon to the game for the first time. Many fans are speculating that Hoopa could officially become available during the mysterious final week, too.