The Pokemon Go Fest 2020 -- an online-only event -- took place over the weekend, and since it was the first one open to all players regardless of their physical location, it is perhaps not surprising to hear that it was the biggest one yet.
According to Mashable, Niantic said, "a record number of millions of trainers" took part from 124 countries and regions around the world, catching nearly a billion pokemon in total.
The Pokemon Go Fest involved new quest lines on each day, culminating in players battling Team Rocket leaders and catching Victini, a mythical Pokemon that was made available in the game for the first time.
The other features of the fest included new shiny Pokemon and regional pokemon appearing outside their typical habitats, which are not as many as might normally be found at an in-person event. The only regional addition observed was Heatmor, which, normally, is only found in the Western hemisphere.
While the event was designed to have been possible to play from home, Niantic said that the players walked an average of almost 15 kilometres each. Especially for the duration of the fest - an in-game item that attracts pokemon was made more effective, and Team Rocket members could be seen in balloons that floated across the sky, but it would have been easier to complete the quest lines if the participant left the house.
As previously announced, Niantic is using proceeds from the 14.99 USD ticket sales to help fund projects from Black AR creators and US NPOs working on rebuilding local communities. The company had pledged a minimum of 5 million USD, but ticket sales have pushed that number up past 10 million USD.
( With inputs from ANI )