A new giant has emerged on Twitch—a free add-on that streamers can enable that lets viewers play a simplified version of the beloved Pokemon titles in chat while watching their streams.
People can do everything from catch and trade Pokemon in their quest to complete the Pokedex, or battle each other and compete in community-organized tournaments to become the number one trainer.
Here’s everything you need to know about it.
How does the Pokemon Community Game work?
The Pokemon Community Game works by typing commands in chat. Players can use them to start the game, view their Pokemon, view their Pokedex, view their currency, catch Pokemon, buy items, join raids, and more.
The full list of basic commands can be found below, courtesy of Taybolte:
- !Pokestart – Start the game
- !Pokebuddy – View details about your favorite Pokemon
- !Pokepass – View your currency balance
- !Pokecatch <ball type> – Catch Pokemon in the wild when it appears in chat. Pokeballs and Premier Balls are used by default unless a specific ball is included in the command.
- !Pokeshop <item name> <quantity> – Buy items
- !Pokeraid – See what raids are happening and join them
- !Pokedex <generation number / type> – View your Pokedex
- !Pokedaily – Retrieve the daily reward (Requires Discord)
- !Pokecheck <Pokémon / Pokedex ID> Check to see if a Pokemon has already been caught.
What can you do on the Pokemon Community Game?
The Pokemon Community Game has all kinds of things you can do—at least, as far as a free addon goes.
Complete the Pokedex
The Pokemon Community Game Pokedex has 898 Pokemon players can catch, 734 of which can be encountered throughout the regular course of the game. The remaining 164 include mythical and legendary Pokemon that can only be found in missions, rewards, and tournaments.
In addition to catching Pokemon, players can also trade them.
Catch shiny Pokemon
Similar to other Pokemon titles, the Pokemon Community Game gives players a small (one in 1250) chance to catch shiny versions of any given Pokemon. The odds can be increased by using Cherish Balls, which can be obtained through missions and rewards.
Battle other Players
The Pokemon Community Game has an elaborate battling system that lets viewers compete against each other in either ranked or unranked battles—both of which scale Pokemon back to level 50.
However, ranked battles are only available to players who have a Pokemon with base stat numbers that exceed 500.
Embark on missions
Pokemon Community Game players can complete five missions every week to earn valuable rewards. They typically revolve around competing in battles, catching a specific type or number of Pokemon, catching a rare Pokemon, and more.
How popular is the Pokemon Community Game on Twitch?
According to StreamsCharts, the Pokemon Community Game is the second most trending game on Twitch.
Streamers who have the addon enabled can have their streams appear in the designated Pokemon Community Game category, and based on the numbers, streams within it accrued more than 10.8 million hours watched in Oct. 2022.
This happened with a bit of help from massive streamers like Ibal Lanos. However, IlloJuan was actually the most-watched streamer in the category. His streams are responsible for 25 percent of the total hours watched.
Considering how popular Pokemon is, and how seamlessly the Community Game is integrated into streams, there’s a good chance the momentum will roll on.
