If you had any doubts (which you shouldn’t) about Pokemon GO‘s (Free) global popularity this year, look no further than Google Trends for 2016, which shows the most trending searches during the very extraordinary year that we’ve had. The top 5 include Donald Trump and the iPhone 7, but above both of those is Pokemon GO, which is an amazing feat for a mobile game that was only around for half of 2016. The US trending searches were quite different from the global ones, but Pokemon GO still managed to be number 4 (just above Slitheri.io, another huge game).
I know many enjoy the “Pokemon GO is dead" narrative, but one, the game is still making a gazillion dollars, and two, no matter what the current state of the game, evidence like google’s trending searches remind us what a huge cultural phenomenon that game was. I really wonder whether we’ll ever see anything like that ever again.