Yesterday a flurry of new events were announced for the upcoming season in Pokémon GO beginning in March 2025, and oh my there were a lot.
- Saturday, March 8, 2025 (Community Day)
- Saturday and Sunday, March 8–9, 2025 (Max Battle Weekend)
- Sunday, March 16, 2025 (Catch Mastery)
- Saturday, March 22, 2025 (Community Day Classic)
- Sunday, March 23, 2025 (Raid Day)
- Saturday, March 29, 2025 (Research Day)
- Saturday, April 5, 2025 (Raid Day)
- Sunday, April 6, 2025 (Hatch Day)
- Sunday, April 13, 2025 (Raid Day)
- Saturday, April 19, 2025 (Max Battle Day)
- Sunday, April 27, 2025 (Community Day)
- Saturday, May 3, 2025 (Raid Day)
- Sunday, May 11, 2025 (Community Day)
- Saturday, May 17, 2025 (Shadow Raid Day)
- Saturday, May 24, 2025 (Community Day Classic)
- Sunday, May 25, 2025 (Max Battle Day)
Now, these events don’t take into consideration events that have already been announced. So keep in mind there are also a variety of in-person events that cross over with a lot of these events:
- Saturday and Sunday, March 1-2, 2025 Pokémon GO Unova Tour: Global
- Saturday and Sunday, March 29-30, 2025 Pokémon GO City Safari: Milan
- Saturday and Sunday, March 29-30, 2025 Pokémon GO City Safari: Mumbai
- Saturday and Sunday, March 29-30, 2025 Pokémon GO City Safari: Santiago
- Saturday and Sunday, March 29-30, 2025 Pokémon GO City Safari: Singapore
This means that there is not a single weekend through the entirety of March, April and May 2025 without a Pokémon GO event of some kind. Some weekends there are multiple events, some that even cross over!
Many trainers who are planning to attend the various Pokémon GO City Safari events across the globe have noted that on 29th March 2025 there is also a Research Day announced. Research Day events typically rely on PokéStops giving out field research tasks that reward encounters with event themed Pokémon. This means that those attending the City Safari events will encounter Research Day themed tasks from 2-5pm (if they are the usual time), instead of their City Safari field research tasks. This has happened before, but not quite on this scale with four in-person events taking part during a Research Day.
Key to these City Safari events is the debut of Mudbray, and typically a new debut that is specific to City Safari events will feature heavily in field research tasks. If your play day is the Saturday, you lose three hours to grind a much desired and exclusive new Pokedéx addition.
There are also multiple weekends with two events:
- The second weekend in March has both a Max Battle Weekend taking place over the whole weekend, and a Community Day
- The fourth weekend in March has a Community Day Classic on the Saturday, and a Raid Day on the Sunday
- The fourth weekend in May has a Community Day Classic on the Saturday, and a Max Battle Day on the Sunday
There are 16 weekend events over the next three months, not including the Global Unova Tour and the City Safari events. That is a lot. The last season had 9 weekend events over December, January and February. That is quite the increase! Many of these events will have tickets for sale in order to boost or improve the event, making the next season look fairly expensive.
And of course, it is essential to note, that this doesn’t take into consideration any of the usual themed events that will run alongside these weekend events!
Niantic has long relied on FOMO (fear of missing out) in order to encourage trainers to go out and play as many of the in game events as possible, but the next season is beginning to look like the most impossible to balance yet. Many people out there are struggling to maintain a work-life balance as it is, never mind a work-life-Pokémon GO balance.
It will be interesting to see how many of these events trainers participate in over the upcoming season. While some events, such as Community Day, can be played in much shorter times than the typical three hours, and those who have been playing since day one may find the Community Day Classic events skippable entirely. But Max Battle events? Those have to be participated in in-person, which often means travel for trainers needing to find a community to play with. The last Shadow Raid Day may have been remote-able, but it certainly ups the cost of a raid event when you have to rely on remote raid passes in order to take part if you already have other plans.
How do you feel about these newly announced events? Does it all seem a little much, or are you looking forward to a jam packed new season that gives you plenty to look forward to?
