Pokémon GO is available for download on the App Store, Google Play, and Galaxy Store.
You can check out more about Pokémon GO at the official website, on Instagram and Facebook, on YouTube, and on Tiktok.
You can read my review for PokémonXP and Pokemon World Championships here.
The San Francisco in-city Pokémon GO experience during PokémonXP and Pokémon World Championships was a fun experience that really felt like a natural evolution of the City Experience from Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Chicago, and it makes me excited to see what Scopely Explore has in mind for 2027 for Pokémon GO Tour, Pokémon GO Fest, and beyond.
First and foremost: there was the debut of two costumed Pikachu that matched up with both PokémonXP and Pokémon World Championships: one wearing a Cosmog-themed spacesuit and one with a crown and a robe. These Pikachu spawned during frequent one-star raids, were part of the pass, and they were also available through special research tasks. If you were, like me, inside San Francisco, you could get both Pikachu with the San Francisco city background. Those were unfortunately rare, but they were still available if you were willing to put the work in to catch/raid as many Pikachu as you could.
There were also special shirts you could get for your avatar to celebrate Pokémon World Championships! The green shirt was available the full weekend if someone just redeemed the redemption code “SANFRANCISCO2026,” but the red shirt was an exclusive shirt that only appeared after you completed timed special research Scavenger Hunt. This included activities such as sending six gifts with stickers, to spinning certain designated PokéStops to doing six Great League battles. Additionally, each task gave a reward of a World Championships Pikachu once they were completed. The tasks were pretty easy to do individually, but it still took me a decent part of the morning to do and it was surprisingly beginner friendly with a good exclusive avatar reward.
The field spawn pools in Pokémon GO weren’t anything special, unfortunately. There were Pokémon ranging from Lickitung to Wooper and Litten, and none of them were what I really needed and I’ll be honest: if they weren’t needed to complete a task, I didn’t really bother with them. It was nice if you wanted, say, an Alolan Sandslash with a Shadow Claw featured attack or a Gardevoir with the Charged Attack Synchronoise, then you could definitely get it. In addition, there were the four Deoxys forms available to capture at the five-star raids, and those raids were filled up constantly. I had been missing two of the forms, and I finally got a full set of them in San Francisco!
The GO Pass, though, was worth it on the paid, deluxe, track. There were multiple PokémonXP an Pokémon World Championships Pikachu encounters, and there was a Zapdos encounter available on the paid track that came in below 1500 CP, so it would be utilized in the Great Battle League. There was also even a 2026 PokémonXP and Pokémon World Championships backpack available. Additionally, you received double Stardust and an extra 3,000 XP per raid at Rank 10 and 20, respectively. Additionally, you could get two more passes when spinning a photo disk. I liked this, since it meant that if you were raiding a ton of costumed Pikachu like I was, then you were getting a ton of additional perks per fight.
On top of the GO Pass, there was a San Francisco event-exclusive Timed Research Path for the three Kalos starter final evolved forms: Chesnaught, Delphox, and Greninja. The path was fairly easy no matter which starter you picked: complete a five-star raid, take a snapshot of your starter Pokémon, and then evolve a grass/fire/water Pokémon. As a reward, you’d get 300 Mega Energy for your pathway. This was a sneak peek event for the Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Mega Finale that took place later in August and at the start of September, and it was…okay. It felt like a side event tacked on to everything else, honestly.
Where Pokémon GO really shined though was the Stamp Rally and the special San Francisco background raids throughout San Francisco.
The stamp rally was the first one I’ve participated in in Pokémon GO, even though they have been a mainstay for the game in Japan. Scopely Explore put the ‘explore’ part of their name to use by selecting 33 significant locations in San Francisco they turned into stamp locations. When you visited a stamp rally PokéStop, you could stamp your card for that location and get a cool digital stamp. You would also get a reward for the first six stamp rally spots you earned of a PokémonXP costumed Pikachu! I ended up completing my six during a single day while I was rushing all over San Francisco to do the raids (I’ll get to those shortly). The game had an in-game map that also was helpful in locating other stamp rally spots. My only wish is that there was a reward for getting all 33 spots beyond self-satisfaction. I am glad to see a stamp rally is coming again to the upcoming Pokémon GO City Safari 2026: Boston, and I am excited to see what locations and rewards are offered through this upcoming event!
The real show-stopper, though? The seven raid spawns throughout the city that gave guaranteed backgrounds at seven significant landmarks. It was clear that a lot of thought was put into deciding what Pokémon would go where. There was a Dewgong raid at the Pier 39 docks where the seals like to hang out, a Zigzagoon raid at the bottom of Lombard Street (since both are zig-zags…), Fuecoco at the California Academy of Sciences (due to Claude the albino American alligator living there until he died in 2025 after 30 years), Duraludon at Salesforce Park (since they both look alike), Kingler at the Fisherman’s Wharf sign (since the sign has a crab on it), and an Alolan Exeggutor raid at the giant palm tree in Mission Dolores Park. Finally, there was a one-time-only Rayquaza at PokémonXP and a Mewtwo at the Chase Center for Pokémon World Championships.
Other than the Rayquaza and the Mewtwo, you could do each raid once a day. This variety of Pokémon with guaranteed San Francisco backgrounds throughout the city of San Francisco meant you were walking, driving, or taking public transit all throughout the city to see everything possible. This, along with the Stamp Rally, really made the City Experience an exciting, full-day, experience throughout the entire city of San Francisco. I really think that this would make for a fun play experience during Pokémon GO Fest.
Separate from this, I also attended the Pokémon Worlds Night at Oracle Park on August 27, 2026. The San Francisco Giants were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. This was a lot of fun to do if you were playing Pokémon GO! In addition to the special Pikachu jersey if you bought the special tickets before they sold out, there were a lot of Pikachu raids present with the Oracle Park stadium as a special background. I ended up getting quite a few Pikachu! There was also a special timed-research to complete for more Pikachu spawns, and there was a special avatar hat you could get if you spun the relevant PokéStop(s).
During this sold-out game of 40,120 fans/trainers, there were fun little Pokémon-related things such as costumed Pikachu appearing on the field before the game and Pokémon appearing on the scoreboard during various spots in the game. I personally spent the game catching a lot of Pikachu with backgrounds (but no shiny!) while watching the San Francisco Giants crush the Arizona Diamondbacks.
After the game, there was a drone light show! I was lucky enough to be sitting on the side of the stadium with the best view of it, and I was honestly blown away with how cool it looked. I’ve never attended a drone show before, and so I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, seeing Pokemon ranging from Jirachi over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Rayquaza Trolley really showed that Pokémon was dedicated to showing off San Francisco in a deep way. Overall, this MLB, Pokemon GO, Pokémon World Championships cross-over event was a great time and one that I hope will happen next year again!
Overall, Scopely Explore really hit it out of the (ball)park with this year’s gameplay events at PokémonXP and Pokémon World Championships. There was a variety of non-tournament gameplay for fans of the game, and it really felt like there was meaty content designed to reward people who came to San Francisco. I am hopeful Scopely Explore will utilize the different elements from this year’s event into the City Experience for Pokémon GO Fest 2027 to make it the best non-park experience possible.
What Pokémon did you catch in Pokémon GO at Pokémon World Championships, PokémonXP, and Pokémon Worlds Night?
Did you get any shiny background-themed Pokémon?
Let us know in the comments below!
