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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Keith Stuart

How Pokémon Go encouraged me to find wonder in the world

A crowd of people gather in front of a screen that reads 'Pokemon Go' in Times Square in New York City, to celebrate  the 10th anniversary of the game.
Surely we’ve caught them all? … Pokémon Go celebrates its tenth birthday. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

Believe it or not, Pokémon Go is 10 years old this month. The wildly successful smartphone game, which allows you to track down lovable creatures in the real world using GPS and augmented-reality technologies, has reportedly been downloaded 800m times across 150 countries and regions. A trillion Pokémon have been caught so far – and I have been responsible for a modest percentage of that figure.

When the game was first released, my sons and I spent many happy hours wandering the streets and parks of Frome searching for Jigglypuffs and Charizards, and the game’s social element, which lets you take on gym battles with other players in your vicinity, offered my autistic son a route to communicate with other children in a way he’d never been able to before.

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