According to legend, when Madonna arrived in New York City as a 19-year-old with big dreams, she told the cab driver to “Take me to the center of it all,” and he dropped her off in Times Square. This historic crossroads has had ups and downs since then and in 2026 it’s an LED-lit destination for visitors…and the occasional native New Yorker.
But it still has the power to enthrall, as I learned last week when I was invited to a 10th Anniversary event for Pokémon Go, the mobile game that has had a space on the first page of my iPhone since I downloaded it 10 years ago. I haven’t gone hard in the game all the time in those years, but it’s a steady presence in my life…and the lives of millions of players around the world.
Just a note here to say the last six weeks here in NYC have been…ABSOLUTE BONKERS. From the Knicks winning to Taylor and Travis to the tall ships to the World Cup…and now Pokémon Go took its spot in the spectacle.
The lucky few who found themselves at Times Square were presented with quite an experience. It kicked off with a DJ set by Loud Luxury that had everyone bopping. And then at 8:30 all the screens all around Times Square turned into a vast animation featuring Mewtwo in his capsule.
Mewtwo may be an old school Pokémon from the original 150 Kanto release, but he holds a very special place in all our hearts as one of the most powerful original critters – and he hasn’t been available in raids since 2022, and but there he was in his Mega Evolution Y. And it was also a callback to the original Pokemon Go trailer, which showed people hunting Mewtwo…in Times Square.
And now here it was in real life. The actual event turned into a Unity raid, with more than 1200 people battling Mega Mewtwo. I had a prime spot on a riser, where I could see all the animations swirling around me, as a DJ urged us to battle and the familiar fighting music blasted.
I’m not gonna lie, this was a trippy, pulse-pounding experience as the center of it all turned into a swirling display of hundreds of trainers and their buddies floating around us, and the final animation of Mewtwo being captured. And I got a shiny! Holy crap!!! Not only a shiny but a 100 point perfect pokemon – a SHUNDO. In my 10 years of playing that was only my second shundo, and it had a special event background as well. (No I am not selling it, please don’t ask.)
But there was a second Mewtwo to be captured, and another thrilling countdown and – HOLY FIREBALLS I GOT A SECOND SHINY! I know the rates were raised for this event but damn, I hit the jackpot. (The normal rates for a shiny are something like 1 in 500.) Screaming, crying, throwing up.
After the raids, they replayed the animation twice more so we could get reaction shots and kind of….drink it all in. Which it deserved. I’ve been to a couple of these Times Square takeovers (previously for One Piece Red,) but it is an incredible experience every time to be surrounded by skyscrapers all playing the same animation. (You can actually experience it every night: a few minutes before midnight Times Square presents Midnight Moment, a curated series of videos displayed on 92 screens. Catch it!)
And now a confession, I am not a Pokemon scholar, and I’m what must be termed a casual player, even though the game means a lot to me. I don’t know the PvP stats or all the other arcane knowledge real trainers can rattle off. And I missed out on most of the anniversary stuff because it was too damn hot out to play the previous weekend. Pokémon Go was my salvation during the pandemic, however, and I’ve had some great experiences and moments playing the game. In particular, the 2021 Kanto Tour, the first social thing I’d done after almost a year of pandemic lockdown, was a wonderful event for me and my fellow trainer, Taimur Dar, who also accompanied me to the 10th Anniversary event. So this was definitely an evening I will never forget.
But as great as this experience was, I understand that a lot of Pokemon Go players were very upset that some people got to have this exclusive experience. To catch Mewtwo you needed a special ticket only available via the event organizers and Community Ambassadors. So you couldn’t just show up.
One of the top-voted threads on the Pokémon Go subreddit calls the event “one of the most out of touch decisions in the history of this game.” The post argued that, while cool, the Mewtwo event is spiritually the “antithesis” of what made Pokémon Go special in 2016.
“Pokémon GO became a global phenomenon because of little moments experienced by millions of average players,” the post read.
As someone who attended as a member of the press, and got the supreme unobtainium available, do I feel guilty? Kinda a little. But I should note that not everyone gets to go to a Taylor Swift concert, or the Super Bowl, or Wrestlemania. Not everyone can fit into Times Square. So I’m super lucky and super grateful to the people at Scopely and Niantic who made my attendance possible.
But the Go Tour event lasted all weekend, and I had a ticket to that, as well. Taking a break from my San Diego Comic-Con prep, on Sunday, I hit Bryant Park, the center of all things Pokémon Go in NYC.
This was a beautiful event of another kind, just hundreds of people of all ages on a lovely sunny summer day, wandering around, playing Pokémon Go, usually with a telltale cable to a battery pack hanging down. (I was too busy to take many pictures!) Most of the players were groups of kids, just having a good time, with occasional cheers as a shiny was caught. Maybe I was one of the oldest players there, but it didn’t matter. One of the daily research tasks I had to complete to finish the event was a trade so I turned to a young woman sitting nearby and we traded Machokes. I didn’t realize it would be a lucky trade so I got a nearly perfect Machamp out of the deal. Thank you, BossKiesha! I hope you got a good one!
I spent well over an hour in Bryant Park raiding and got three more shiny Mewtwos. WHAT THE HECK. It was such a nice way to spend a few hours, and even though I was staring at my phone, it was a much needed break from the toil and trouble. Maybe the 10th Anniversary event was too exclusive but at Bryant Park it was gloriously open to everyone, and that is the true spirit of Pokémon Go.
There are a lot of good and bad things about Pokémon Go, and some sinister things, even, but I’m not going to dwell on them here. I didn’t get the Gimmighoul with a coin – I don’t even have a Gimmighoul – and I definitely haven’t caught them all. I got to have some unforgettable experiences in my home city, with a good friend, though. And for that, Pokémon Go, I will always be grateful.
https://x.com/PokemonGoApp/status/2075389714165600409?s=20
And some of my own rather excited photos and video.
And official photos.
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SCOPELY – Pokémon GO fans await the arrival of Mega Mewtwo Y at the Pokémon GO 10th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in New York. (Carla Torres/AP Content Services for Scopely)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SCOPELY – Pokémon GO fans celebrate at the Pokémon GO 10th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in New York. (Carla Torres/AP Content Services for Scopely)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SCOPELY – Joe De Pace and Andrew Fedyk of Loud Luxury perform at the Pokémon GO 10th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in New York. (Carla Torres/AP Content Services for Scopely)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SCOPELY – Pokémon GO fans await the arrival of Mega Mewtwo Y at the Pokémon GO 10th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in New York. (Carla Torres/AP Content Services for Scopely)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SCOPELY – Pokémon GO fans join together in a 1,000 person Raid Battle at the Pokémon GO 10th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in New York. (Carla Torres/AP Content Services for Scopely)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SCOPELY – Pokémon GO fans are seen at the Pokémon GO 10th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in New York. (Carla Torres/AP Content Services for Scopely)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SCOPELY – Pokémon GO fans are seen at the Pokémon GO 10th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in New York. (Carla Torres/AP Content Services for Scopely)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR SCOPELY – Pokémon GO fans celebrate at the Pokémon GO 10th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in New York. (Carla Torres/AP Content Services for Scopely)
Finally, Scopely sent some beautiful b-roll footage but it’s too big to post and I don’t have time to edit it down. But here is a beautiful screenshot of the event, while a city garbage truck backs up. Because that’s New York in a nutshell, baby.
