Pokémon Go is five years old today and Niantic is celebrating in style.
On top of releasing a gorgeous new piece of art to celebrate its anniversary and hype up trainers for the upcoming Pokémon Go Fest on July 17, Niantic has snuck in a few new surprises as always to get people ready for the next year and beyond.
In the image, fans can clearly see Litten, Popplio, and Rowlet surrounded by familiar faces. These Pokémon aren’t in the game yet, so this seems to tease their upcoming inclusion alongside the seventh generation of Pokémon making their debut in the mobile game in the future. No other Pokémon from the Pokémon Sun and Moon line of games have been shown off, though.
This follows a similar trend from Niantic of teasing upcoming Pokémon with previous year celebrations and doesn’t mean we’ll see them included in the game anytime soon. It could take months until we finally get some form of official announcement, but it’s still exciting to see them make an appearance, confirming they’re at least on the way.
On top of this reveal, Niantic announced some impressive numbers that the Pokémon Go community has achieved over the past five years, including the astounding announcement that all players have walked a collective 49 billion kilometers in total since the game launched in 2016. Players have also added a collective 450 million friends throughout the game’s life cycle.
For anyone looking to join in on the festivities, there’s an event going on in the game right now that sees increased spawns of every single starter Pokémon from the previous six generations and shiny Daramuka spawns.
