As the summer of 2016 is drawing to a close, a couple memorable things stick out. The continual rise of Birkenstocks, constant Harambe memes (along with the reenactment at Cincinnati High school), the Olympics in Rio, and of course, Pokémon Go. While people from around the world may have tuned in to watch Michael Phelps win his last gold medal before retiring, finding the best Pokéstop in the area also drew people together.

The Pokémon Go app was released in the US on July 6. In the first 5 days the app was released, it was downloaded around 7.5 million times from Google Play and the iOS App Store. But the sheer number of people downloading the app is not what makes it stick out. Since the app requires people to walk around in order to get a certain number of steps to incubate eggs or to move around to find different types of Pokémon, this app caused a sudden increase in pedestrian traffic. While it was now common to see many people outside and walking around, it took a little more searching to find people who were not continuously looking down at their phones, hunting for the best Pokémon.

Part of the hype with Pokémon Go was building off of the augmented reality technology. Instead of just looking at a screen in a different, online or viral world (virtual reality), augmented reality allows for players to look at the real-world environment through computer-generated input. The Pokémon located through using the Pokémon Go app are not just part of a computer game on a screen, but at the same time they are not a part of the local park. If users take a picture of the tree they are standing next to that happens to have a Pidgey, it will look like the Pokémon was standing right next to them.

Although Pokémon Go was all the rage in the first couple of weeks it was released, people are starting to spend less time on the app. Interest is dying down for many people, but there are still many others still out there trying to catch the best and continue to level up. Freshman Gibson Archer-Tang is an avid Pokémon Go player, and enjoyed spending countless hours over the summer progressing. Archer-Tang comments that he likes the app because, “It’s extremely fun despite the lack of content, broken battling system, and bad tracking system. Over the summer it allowed me to connect with my friends and people I didn’t even know and allowed me to bond with them.” While the start of school and different schedules may not allow for as much time for players to go onto the app, the true die-hard fans are sure to keep playing until they… Catch’em All!