The mobile video game, which has an exceptionally active community, celebrates its first non-virtual meeting in Seville when it turns six

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in Alamillo Park, Seville, According to Google, Fridays aren’t usually very crowded, and yet hundreds of people are scattered across the lawn, in groups. They all look at the mobile, remain attentive. Some make victory gestures and suddenly start running, stamping, towards a tree about 100 meters away. someone shouts: there is a Taurus, a taurus shiny, And the notice alerts more visitors, who come to the area. Nothing at first glance, but on their mobile the story is different, the world is different and what is waiting in that tree, according to their screen, is the Pokemon.

The mobile video game Pokémon Go, which will be six years old in July, has already garnered over a billion downloads for both Android and iOS and is the first to hold an event in Spain, named Safari Zone Which is ending this Sunday in which thousands of people have attended. The entire Parque del Alamillo is decorated for the occasion with rest areas, several places to charge mobiles and food trucks.

This game deserves a case study: it has achieved live more than five years Maintaining a stable community of regular users and is also able to attract people of all ages. Indeed, it was difficult to find players under the age of 40 during the first hours of the event.

One of the early risers is Stephen Williams, an Australian retiree who takes advantage of the incident to get to know Seville. I started playing in 2016, using it as an excuse to go out for a walk, since when I stopped working, the chair seemed to have kidnapped me, he explains. Williams is a multitasker, he manages to catch up two mobiles with one handUse the other to play on both devices and talk to us at the same time. I never finished connecting with my two kids, I had them too old and I’ve always felt like their grandfather, unable to find hobbies or tastes to share. However, everything changed when during a family reunion I found out that my kids had gone out on the weekend. Sydney Park Playing Pokémon Go with your grandchildren. I was already level 30 in the game and they couldn’t resist an invitation to team up with me, and it’s become a tradition ever since, he says. Although his family members have not been able to travel for a long time. 15,000 kms The one that separates Australia from Spain says it is capturing extra Pokemon so that it can exchange them when it returns.

The case of this Australian is not alone. 60% of attendees have arrived by plane from outside Spain and about a third are from outside europePokemon Go marketing head Philip Marge says. Citizens of the United States, Latin America, and even the Philippines like Margarita Kuegkeng, who take advantage of the moment to answer us to relax by the phone and leave their son in the game as a relay. I didn’t even know what a Pokémon was, but my son came home from school one day and decided he wanted to play. It seemed small to me. So we made a deal to play on our phones together until I was old enough to have a device of my own. In the end, I bowed down to him, says Qiagkeng, as his son wears his son’s T-shirt. Pikachu.

In 2016, a study conducted by Survey Monkey showed that Pokemon Go became the video game with the most active users per day in the United States, candy Crush. And during the first few months, it even surpassed social media in average daily usage time.

The fact that it managed to gather thousands of people in a one-on-one event six years after its mobile video game release makes it a rare bird, as the mobile video game market is imro Having a steady flow of active users, the peak of which usually appears in the first months of the game’s life, with subsequent uninstalls and people who do not open the application again. According to Flurry, an American mobile advertising, monetization and analytics company, a mobile app typically begins to experience a period of sannyas About three months after reaching the peak of its use. Considering that Pokémon Go peaked about six years ago, its existence has largely been achieved thanks to its very heterogeneous group of users. Humberto Kam, director of global live events for Pokémon Go, highlights that many of the friendships we see today at the event originated in the digital world. This is the place where you can experience metaverso Because everything is built in a digital world, in the app, coming to life here in Seville, he adds.

Christina Gonzalez has been linked to Pikachu (a yellow rat-like creature) and Eve (as an adorable puppy) since she was still in school. I replaced the pokemon with the console’s link cable player boy During the break, then I started doing it with my mobile and that’s how I met my husband, she says, celebrating capturing an alternate and rare version of digital creatures. Their love story took place in Madrid’s Parque de . was started in retirementAt the bottom of the monument to Alfonso XII.

In this area, in the digital world of videogames, many pokestops, places where players can pick up items that help them and where creatures appear to be taking over. That’s why today, especially when good weather comes, it’s still common to see many people standing by your side. mobile phone. This is how Christina and Kevin met, sitting on the steps of the monument, hunting Pokémon from noon until sunset, at which point she began talking to him. We ask them what’s in their bag at the merchandising stand, a mini Pokémon T-shirt for their future child, with whom they plan to share the hobby that brought them together. Without a doubt, a game capable of passing down generations.