Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Global takes place for free between July 11-12, 2026, and you can read more about it here.
Ten years after that first-ever Pokémon GO Fest in Grant Park, Scopely has returned to the Windy City and presented what I think is honestly the best Pokémon GO Fest event yet (albeit with two exceptions) in Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Chicago. Set across July 5-7, 2026, gameplay is split across two play sessions in one day: the Park Experience inside Grant Park and the City Experience across the wider Chicago city.
Any Pokémon fan will tell you that the most important part of Pokémon GO Fest is the Pokémon that you can go catch there that are impossible to catch anywhere else. Scopely really stepped things up from Pokémon GO Tour 2026: Los Angeles by including a variety of Pokémon in all sorts of tiers of content. First and foremost, there was the eggs and field spawns of Mudbray (normally only available in Pokémon GO City Safari events) and Comfey (region locked to the Hawaiian Islands). I was thrilled that I could encounter both of these Pokémon in the wild instead of just hatching them randomly from eggs, and I wound up eventually with a shiny Mudbray to add to my ever-growing Pokémon collection. There were also costumed Bulbasaur, Pikachu, and Caterpie available to catch, too!
The raids themselves really shined. In both the Park Experience and the City Experience, there were a TON of Mewtwo to raid and capture. This was only fitting, as this event featured the release of Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y. (More on them in a bit.) Additionally, there were Blaze Tauros, exclusive to the Eastern Hemisphere, to catch and lots and lots of Primal/Shadow five-star raids to take on. It felt like that if there was a Pokémon that you’ve missed over the handful of gameplay seasons from Kanto or Hoenn, then you would have no trouble finding something to fight and strive to catch. I do not think the shiny rate for raids was boosted, as I kept very rarely getting shiny Pokémon — and except for my end-of-round Mewtwo, I didn’t get a single shiny Pokémon with a background.
The zoning within the Park Experience was incredibly clever. Grant Park was split up into four different zone: Recruitment Zone, Cultivation Zone, Conservatory Zone, and Team GO Rocket Hideout. Each of the different four areas focused on a different aspect of gameplay, too: Recruitment Zone focused on raiding, Cultivation Zone is all about eggs and egg hatching, Conservatory Zone is about catching Pokémon and focuses as a ‘hub’ with the Pokémon store and other areas nearby it, and Team GO Rocket Hideout had Shadow raids. This meant that I wasn’t running all over Grant Park from north to south all day trying to do whatever type of raid I was focusing on, and it helped congregate people with different gameplay goals naturally into different areas instead of making everyone free flow all the time from one side to another to continue raiding or to try to find more PokéStops to hatch eggs for that rare shiny Pokémon. I really hope Scopely will continue to do that in the future, as it definitely improved the Park Experience.
Another major change to this year’s Park Experience that I liked was that the in-park story was based off of timed researches that started at the top of the hour that were both easy to complete and it forced you to move around to visit the different zones. It really drove home the Team GO Rocket story of them targeting Mewtwo, because everyone was experiencing it together in real time. The Pokémon GO Fest park tasks would come in as a special research at previous events, and I will be honest: I didn’t always complete it during the park experience’s four hours as there was simply too much to do. I thought this was a great way to story tell within Pokémon GO and to also set up the stage for the Mega Mewtwo raids.
The Mega Mewtwo Raids were the introduction of Unity Raids to Pokémon GO, and what I believe is finally putting the thousand-plus person raids from Pokémon GO Fest 2025: Jersey City and Pokémon GO Tour: Kalos to use. A few days before the event, you were emailed which of the four Grant Park zones you were to have your Mega Mewtwo raid in (and if you bought your tickets all during the same purchase, your group would be kept together). In case you forgot which zone to go to, there were also two stars that appeared on your in-game map at the beginning of your Park Experience that lingered around for the entirety of the event so you knew where to go. The two Mega Mewtwo raids (one for Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y) popped up at the last 30 minutes of the gameplay session, and you could choose to take them on as the conclusion of the timed story.
When the raid timer started, you went into one raid, waited for the timer to count down, and then you started to fight Mewtwo. There were certain points during the raid, however, where all the players had to synchronize to raise their phones up into the air at once to defeat and then later capture Mewtwo. It was a bit dorky, yes, but also cool to see all the other hundreds of people you were raiding with raise their phones in real time around you with the same goal in mind. It also had the bonus of making Mega Mewtwo (who came with a guaranteed background!) a guaranteed catch. I just wish there were more opportunities to gain Mega Mewtwo energy during the upcoming Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Global that is happening July 11-12, 2026.
If there was one thing I did not like about the Unity Raid, it was Scopely’s communication of when the Mega Mewtwo raids started and where people were supposed to go. Yes, they told you in email and on the website, and yes, there was also the obvious stars in the game. However, there were a lot of people who just didn’t check their email or do anything more than buy the Park Experience ticket and show up to Grant Park to play and expect to catch Mega Mewtwo. I really think the Park Experience would have benefitted from a forced game pop-up screen to inform people of where and when they should go to their particular zone. One of my friends, who went to his first-ever Pokémon GO Fest experience with me, mistakenly believed the Mega Mewtwo raids were to start after the Park Experience concluded for the day until I corrected him and explained to him how to figure out what zone he was supposed to go to. For the price that people pay to attend and to travel/stay at the event, there is just no reason for Scopely to not ensure everyone knows where to go and when in as obvious a way as possible.
The online Pokémon GO Fest merchandise situation was pretty darn good this time around. There were exclusive shirts, hoodies, an event pin, and a tote bag that you could pre-order when you bought your ticket. I was surprised that the pre-orders were available as long as they were, and so I think that Scopely was able to anticipate demand pretty well. They also shadowdropped the Pokémon GO 10-Year Anniversary Merchandise as both an add-on to the ticket and through the website. This launched unfortunately after tickets were on sale, and so while I was able to fill in some gaps in my collection, I did not get everything. Two items I wanted, the Pokémon 10 Year Anniversary Lapel Pin and the Pokémon 10 Year Anniversary Challenge Coin, went out of stock incredibly quickly and only got a very brief restock online as the Chicago event started. I really wish that Scopely would move to an open pre-order system with a definitive deadline for event merchandise, as I hate having to worry about missing limited items as they show up for sale.
The in-person merchandise was handled mostly well, too. The merchandise tent was smaller than previous years, and it was very easy for people to wind up standing in line for most of the Park Experience event to try to shop for things. There was exclusive Pokémon x 100 Thieves Mega Mewtwo X and Y tops for sale at this event, and some of the items even came with codes that you could equip your character with the relevant item in-game. There was also a lot of the 10-Year Anniversary pins and t-shirts available for sale inside, and it made me happy that people could get them in-person instead of just through the online store. That said, there definitely wasn’t as much Pokémon plush this time around for sale as there was in prior years. If you pre-ordered your merchandise before Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Chicago, you were able to pick it up from a separate queue around the backside of the merchandise tent with your QR code, and that line moved incredibly quickly.
The biggest disappointment this time around was the decorations for each zone. For its faults, one of the best parts of Pokémon GO Tour: Kalos was the absolutely massive and amazing structures that were built everywhere that really helped anchor each play zone for people to take pictures at. For example, last time at the Rose Bowl, we had a walk-through cave, a city plaza, and more, to experience and take photos at. We really did not have that this time at Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Chicago. I was especially disappointed in Team Go Rocket Hideout, as that was just a giant R with smoke effects and flags surrounding it. I was expecting it to be, well, more like a Hideout. Even the recruitment zone only had the three normal giant team tents and a small photo opportunity with the team leader cutouts at each station. I really, really hope that this year’s zone structures are just a blip overall, and that there is a real return to form for next year’s Pokémon GO Fest.
The other thing about zones is that I wish there was catch medals for catching all the various Pokémon in each zone again. There were a lot of Pokémon that I straight up ignored in the field simply because I had no interest in them beyond trying to complete the timed research for the Park Experience story. I am glad that there are regional exclusives and costumed Pokémon around to catch, but it would be nice if we could have had a reason to catch all the Pokémon present beyond shiny hunting.
The City Experience for this year’s Pokémon GO Fest was honestly the best ever. In prior years, the special research essentially said “go do things in the city when you can” and there wasn’t really any urgency to it or to do it. This year, Scopely had it in two parts: the usual special research and a timed research. The timed research was really cool, because it broke Chicago up into four different zones for you to explore and complete tasks in. Once you completed each of the four zones timed researches, you got a final timed research that ended up with a Team GO Rocket fight and a guaranteed city background Elekid catch that you could not get any other way. I never expected to find myself driving around Portage Park on a Friday night, trying to complete a Timed Research, but it was a lot of fun. Overall, this year’s City Experience forced me to check out different parts of Chicago and I really hope that Scopely considers taking this approach again.
So, overall, was this year’s Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Chicago worth going to? Yes. Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Chicago was one of the best in-person events that I have ever been to for Pokémon GO, and it shows that Scopely is not afraid of innovating even after ten years. I think that with a few tweaks (improving the structures that mark each zone, including forced in-game notifications for United Raids, and conducting an open merchandise pre-order window in particular), then next year’s Pokémon GO Fest will become a must-not miss event for any Pokémon GO trainer. I only ended up knocking off a half-star for the in-person structures as the strength of the gameplay experience really more than made up for it for me. I think if Scopely can just get better zone decorations in place, the next event would be perfect.
This willingness to really shake things up also makes me excited to see what Scopely has in store for the free upcoming Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Global event in July!
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Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Global takes place for free between July 11-12, 2026, and you can read more about it here.
Did you attend Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Chicago? What was your favorite Pokémon that you caught there?
Let us know in the comments below!
