Trainers, Pokémon GO map just got a large spawn point refresh, introducing new spawn points to areas around the globe. This is an unannounced change on Niantic’s end, which was spotted and verified by keen players!
As part of this change, global Pokémon spawns are also getting updated, with a focus on increased variety of places where Pokémon appear, better distribution in cities and more spawns for rural players:
- Different Pokémon will appear in even more places than before
- In densely populated areas, this could mean that you’ll see the same numbers of Pokémon as before, but they will be spread out more evenly
- You may also see Pokémon appear in different locations than before
- For Trainers in rural or rapidly expanding areas, this may also increase the number of Pokémon that appear overall
Map data was also updated with new OpenStreetMap planet snapshot
In addition to the new spawn points, the map has been updated with new OpenStreetMap data! Niantic is using data from the OpenStreetMap, a global open source map that anyone can edit, and that relies heavily on user input. Niantic doesn’t sync with OpenStreetMap often – the last major refresh was back in 2022,
OpenStreetMap (OSM) publishes its data weekly, packaged as a massive “planet file”, and it looks like the sync date is between Aug 25, 2023 and Jan 16, 2024, as spotted by this redditor.
