Pokémon Go player activity has increased by 35 percent since May

Pokémon Go was particularly popular over the course of this summer, according to the game’s developer, Niantic.

In a new blog post, the company revealed that player activity has increased by 35 percent since May.

While Niantic didn’t reveal a specific player count, the company said that “tens of millions of Trainers around the world” played Pokémon Go every month of the summer.

This follows an earlier report stating that Pokémon Go hit its largest player base in June since first launching on Android and iOS in 2016.

The summer spike in Pokémon Go activity is likely due to the friend system and the highly requested trading feature that Niantic added to the game in late June.

Since then, more than 113 million Friend connections have been made and 2.2 billion Gifts have been sent to friends, according to Niantic.

“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,” wrote Niantic CEO John Hanke.

Hanke also mentioned that Niantic is “working on some surprises for Pokémon Go this fall to give Trainers even more ways to play together.” It’s likely that Hanke is referring to the long-awaited player-vs-player mode, which has been confirmed to launch by the end of 2018.

In the same blog post, Niantic reiterated that an updated version of Ingress, its original augmented reality (AR) game, will release later this fall to coincide with the title’s sixth anniversary. An animated Netflix series is also slated to debut before the end of the year.

Finally, Niantic briefly mentioned that it is “hard at work” with Warner Bros. on Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a free-to-play mobile game set to feature some sort of Pokémon Go-esque AR gameplay. Little is currently known about the game, although Niantic suggests that players follow the official Wizards Unite website for more information in the future.

Source: Niantic