Looking at Phones Got Utah to Go Outside in 2016 Thanks to 1 App

It’s 2016, and the smartphone revolution is stronger than ever thanks to more affordable options across the board. While the information being passed around was in abundance, the amount of people going outside for exercise was staggeringly low...until July rolled around.

July 6, 2016: A new app is released to the public that got everyone to get off their butts and out into the streets with a single mantra motivating them.

Gotta Catch ‘Em All.

Pokémon Go is a massively popular AR game that’s still influential today with how much revenue it brings in through community events and regular updates.

Unlike many other smartphone games, this one requires the player to go outside and explore. They’d walk through areas of their city they didn’t know existed all because there was a chance a rare monster would appear before them.

The more you walked, the more you found. The more you find, the more you catch. It’s such a simple solution to a nationwide exercise issue, but this proved extremely effective.

It didn’t come without issue. More “explorative” players would trespass on private property because the game decided it was an important landmark. Pokémon would appear more often around landmarks...even if it was a person’s house.

Another issue was that people would play while driving, looking down at their phones while traveling at speeds over 40 mph.

The game would address these issues in a future update by giving warnings based on speed and location.

While it’s not quite as a phenomenon today, Utah was full of Pokémon trainers scouring the streets for virtual monsters to bolster their collections in 2016.

If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s to never underestimate the power of a well-established property like Pokémon, which is the most profitable media franchise on the entire planet and has only become more profitable since the game launched in 2016. Gotta Catch ‘Em All indeed.