It’s been an incredible summer for the team here at Niantic with a flurry of activity all around the globe. More than 400,000 Trainers joined our three global Pokémon GO events in Dortmund, Germany, Chicago, USA, and Yokosuka, Japan and millions more joined together to play with them in a series of global quests to unlock rewards for all players. There is nothing quite like strolling through a beautiful park catching Pokémon with thousands of other players on a gorgeous summer day.

Even more inspiring for us at Niantic was the site of people from all walks of life, all ages, families and friends coming together to enjoy these mega adventures together. And as many of you Trainers know, the fun of playing together wasn’t restricted to these mega events. Pokémon GO Community Days have become regular monthly celebrations organized locally by Trainers around the world.

Over the summer, tens of millions of Trainers around the world played Pokémon GO together every month, with a 35% increase in active usage since May. Since we introduced the new Social features at the end of June, more than 113 million Friend connections have been made and 2.2 billion Gifts have been sent to friends, showcasing how Trainers truly enjoy interacting with one another and playing together.

While the headlines are filled with examples of technology being used to divide us, our experiences this summer deepen our conviction that technology can be harnessed to enhance our lives in a positive way and bring us all closer together and strengthen our connection with the communities where we live and play.

To take that idea even further, we’ve been working with the Knight Foundation on a host of programs to tie AR games to civic engagement. We recently announced a new Fellowship program that will provide select community leaders the tools to integrate Pokémon GO into Open Street events in cities across the U.S. If you’re near Charlotte, North Carolina on September 30 or Macon, Georgia on October 7 make sure to check out these unique events that will take Trainers on a tour across these historic cities.

Meanwhile, back at Niantic HQ, we are eagerly planning even better events for next year!

Getting ready for an exciting Fall

Even as summer fades in the Northern Hemisphere, we are working on some surprises for Pokémon GO this Fall to give Trainers even more ways to play together.

In addition, we are celebrating the six year anniversary of Ingress with the upcoming launch of Ingress Prime. We are incorporating improvements developed in the Niantic Real World Platform into this reboot of the game that started our journey in transforming the real world into a playground for our imaginations. We’ll be revealing more about Ingress Prime as we get closer to launch so make sure to follow Ingress on Twitter for the latest news about the game, the upcoming Ingress animation series on Netflix, and our lineup of Ingress events.

Finally, since we know you want to ask! The teams at Niantic and WB Games are hard at work on the next evolution of Niantic Real World games, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Make sure to follow this site for more info.

It’s been an exciting year so far and we can’t wait to have more adventures together with you.

—jh