How Pokémon GO is making a resurgence eight years after release

Eight years ago this trend took over the world – now we can brace for it to return.

There are hundreds of Pokéstops in Brisbane City. Picture: Pokémon GO

It’s the Pokémon game that in 2016 dominated the news cycle for months on end.

At the height of its popularity, Pokemon GO had people running out into traffic to catch a Snorlax.

Eight years later the mobile game is making a resurgence, with hundreds of dedicated players in South East Queensland spending countless hours on cultivating local communities.

Pokémon GO is still unbelievably popular in Brisbane. Picture: Pokémon GO

Almost every single sign, painting, mural, or historical location can become a Pokémon GO hub, if you have someone dedicated enough to build up the community.

Brisbane City Hall, Bee Gees Way in Redcliffe and the Brisbane sign at Southbank are all denoted as gyms in Pokémon GO: locations where you can team up and catch rare Pokémon, or, attempt to take control of the gym.

Brisbane’s best place to play the game is undeniably on the Redcliffe peninsula. Around 140 gyms are within the boundary of the 38 sqm area. Like clockwork, at 6pm every Wednesday, you will find dozens of people at Deception Bay skatepark ready to work together to defeat raid bosses.

By submitting local points of interest such as plaques, art and local cafes on the Niantic Wayfarer website, Queensland contributors are leading the way with a huge amount of submissions every day.

Stephen Eisenhauer, a day one player with over 420 million experience points in the game, is one of the leaders of the Brisbane Pokémon GO group - the biggest in Queensland.

“I think what keeps me coming back each day is there’s almost always something new to do each day, or something different to catch. The game has constant events to change the Pokémon spawns or different bonuses to keep me coming back as well. There are so many features in the game that I can pick and choose which parts I want to interact with, which certainly helps,” he said.

Real world locations become points of interest in the mobile game. Picture: Pokémon GO

As one of the official community ambassadors, he is given support to help grow the community from Niantic and collaborates with other ambassadors from all over the world.

“Our Brisbane community has grown to levels not seen in years and just continues to grow with each passing month,” he said.

Brisbane came close to getting its own dedicated Safari Zone event, however a slew of natural disasters and the pandemic made the plans ultimately fizzle out.

“After seeing the huge success with other live events hosted around the world, myself and a number of other leaders came together to investigate the option of having a live event hosted in Brisbane,” Mr Eisenhauer said.

“We came together a few times and managed to get in contact with various State Government contacts and with Niantic.

Mr Eisenhauer is a day one player and has no desire to quit anytime soon. Picture: Pokémon GO

“As Australia was a different market to their other live event locations, the group of us worked on various parts of a proposal together, so that we could then present to the State Government and Niantic.

“The good news is Niantic still knows that Brisbane is keen and ready to host an event sometime in the future.”

Luke Singh has travelled internationally for Pokémon GO events four times and has spent more than $15,000 on in-game currency, not including flights and accommodation.

“The communities and long-term friendships keep me coming back,” he said.

Now a level 50 player, he considers the Redcliffe peninsula as the best location to play the game in Queensland.

Mr Singh believes Redcliffe is the best place to play the game. Picture: Pokémon

“Redcliffe is one of the best places to play because the layout is excellent for playing the game, the points of interest are spaced out and there’s a nice beachfront too,” he said.

His best advice to new players was that they shouldn’t be scared to socialise with the locals.

“Everywhere has a local community. Community ambassadors are a great way to connect with a group. If you don’t have a crew to play with the game isn’t as much fun,” he said.