In the summer of 2016, an augmented reality game inspired crowds of players to emerge from the subway and walk the gridded streets of New York, to venture into the tropical heat of the Botanic Gardens of Singapore, to circulate through tourist landmarks in Warsaw, and to stop their motorbikes alongside parks in Ho Chi Min. Within a period of two weeks, one highly motived player traveled across the entire United States to collect all North American available species of artificial Pokémon life. Ironically, at a time when seventy-five percent of biological animal species on earth are facing extinction, and even as the initial popularity of the game has subsided, Pokémon Go players continue to comb the outdoors, amassing menageries of common pigeon-like Pidgeys and Rattatas, and more rarely capturing highly sought after Dragonairs or holiday-themed Pikachus. Maps created by players show a diverse variety of Pokeman nests distributed around the globe in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

North American developer Niantic's in-game mapping implementation is key to experiencing the game. A former Google Maps researcher, John Hancke, now CEO of Niantic, initially developed the augmented reality infrastructure of Pokémon Go, displayed on the player's mobile phone.