Lukasz and his father traveled from Warsaw for the Pokémon GO Fest, which took place over the weekend in the Britzer Garten in Berlin, on the western edge of Neukölln. After a two-year break from Corona, Pokémon GO players, also known as trainers, gathered here again for the first time for a big live event. The organizers expected 40,000 people in total. The trainers traveled from all over the world to attend, with only 40 percent of them coming from Germany.

20,000 participants were here on Saturday alone, undeterred by the blistering sun. Many showed up dressed up or in their team’s colors. As a coach, at some point you have to choose between wisdom (blue), courage (red) and intuition (yellow). Surprisingly, the friends of intuition seem to be in the majority today in the Britzer Garten.

Six billion dollars in sales since launch

Since Pokémon GO created a lot of hype after its release in 2016, it has disappeared from most people’s perception. But appearances are deceiving. The title is still the most successful augmented reality game of all time and has generated sales of over six billion US dollars to date. More than 150 million people around the world still regularly walk around with their cell phones and catch little digital monsters.

Catching them all is the great attraction of the game, and of course the developers at the company Niantic know this very well. New Pokémon are released all the time, or special versions of well-known specimens. “Shiny” Pokémon have a different color and appear extremely rarely, so many of them are coveted goods here at the GO Fest exchange booth.

Tamara from Cologne is on the lookout for a Relicanth, which is only available in New Zealand. Andreas has one and is interested in her Shiny Roserade, the Berlin sky brought the two together. But then the disillusionment. Andreas has already exhausted his exchange limit today, nothing works anymore. The next pity mission for Amanda. But she can’t promise anything, there’s still something up in the air, the American can also only swap once more. That must be clarified first, the two want to come right back.

The swap meet is not the only hotspot in the Britzer Garten, which was created for the 1985 Federal Garden Show. The organizers created four special zones: The Windy Coast, The Electric Garden, The Living Meadow and The Molten Rock, they are inspired by the park. Different Pokémon now appear in these zones, and some special challenges that players can complete with their ticket must be done in these zones. This way, visitors automatically explore the entire area. This fits in with the general concept of Pokémon GO.

“At the core of the game for us are three things,” explains Philip Marz from Niantic. “Discovering the world, moving around, and meeting other people.” What sounds like marketing actually works for Pokémon GO, which is perhaps why the game’s success continues unabated to this day. Amanda and Andreas from the swap meet met on the street in Switzerland while playing, and today the two work together.

Annual pass holders are confused

The audience in the Britzer Garten is heterogeneous; young women with babies in slings cavort next to children of preschool age and Japanese pensioners. Sometimes it seems a bit surreal that at a mass event the majority of the visitors are looking at their cell phones almost all the time. But there are definitely moments of encounter: autograph sessions with YouTubers and influencers, live fights, photo opportunities with Pikachu or Evoli, and of course organized meetings of trainers who have sometimes been digitally networked for years and are now seeing each other in real life for the first time.

Tamara from Cologne waits patiently for her Relicanth, after half an hour she gives up hope. And indeed, Andreas writes that unfortunately it does not work. She packs the powerbank into her bag, suddenly the cell phone rings. Andreas has got it all wrong, the two are on their way. A few minutes later, Amanda, with her earrings modeled after the steel Pokémon Meltan, is standing in front of a beaming Tamara, who is receiving the rare fish. She’s been waiting for this for four years, ever since the Pokémon first appeared in the game.

A few other park-goers have also strayed into the Britzer Garten, probably annual pass holders. With wide eyes, these, mostly older, Berliners try to figure out what is going on here. Many moments of happiness remain hidden from them: rare finds, challenges completed, new records. The trainers, however, can finally share the joys from their cell phones live. 40,000 people here, know what they feel.