Events

Pikachu festive — A Festive Pikachu is an event-exclusive; costumed Pokémon.

Events of Pokémon GO are either in-game or both in-game and real-world themed celebrations, normally related to special occasions and holidays. Events can last few hours, or several days. Since the GO Beyond update, events occurr within Seasons. During events, there are various temporal changes to the game that can be applied (bonuses and perks for Trainers) such as:

Multiplied Stardust, Candy and XP for several actions such as catching, hatching, transferring, evolving and battling.
Increase of Incubator efficiency.
Reduced buddy distance and trading cost.
Extended duration of Star Piece, Lucky Egg, Lure Modules and Incense.
Release of specific Pokémon species, forms, shiny and shadow variants.
Specific Pokémon wearing costumes.
Specific Pokémon spawns increased.
Special Photobombs.
Specific Pokémon in temporary Eggs, Raid Battles and Research tasks.
Exclusive moves available.
Release of Special or Timed Research tasks.
Release of Collection Challenges
PokéStop Showcases.
Release or availability of avatar items and stickers.
Location Cards and Challengers.
Specific attacks.
Special shop offer.
Team GO Rocket related bonuses.
Special decoration in the Map View.

Each event can vary in its availability:

Ticketed events: most events are free to play, but some can only be accessible by tickets. In some events, non-ticket holders can access some bonuses from the ticketed events.
Regional events: some events are only available in specific regions. For instance, some events happened only on Europe, Latin American and the Caribbean, Asia or specifically on Japan or US.
Real-world events: some events can be a real-world event or be tied-in with some real-world event.

On this wiki, the events are classified in three major excluding categories:

Unique events: events that happened only once.
Seasonal events: events that happened more than once, in general, once a year. Normally, these events are related to real-world holidays.
Recurring events: events that happened more than once a year, and are not seasonal events.

For a complete list of Unique, Seasonal and Recurring events, and more information about each event:

Main article: List of Events

Unique events[]

Events that happened only once in the game, are in the Unique events category. These events can happen due several reasons such as, but not limited to:

Promotion of a Niantic game, or Pokémon Company game or movie. For instance, Ingress Prime Celebration to celebrate the release of Ingress Prime and Alolan Exeggutor Event to celebrate the announcement of Let's Go, Pikachu & Let's Go, Eevee.
Start or end of a Season. For instance, Welcome to Alola and Alola to Alola to celebrate the start and end of Season of Alola.
Release of a new game mechanic. For instance, A Mega Moment for the release of Mega levels
Real-word dates. For instance, World Tourism Day

Seasonal events[]

Events that happened more than once, in general, once a year, are in the Seasonal events category. This includes:

events are related to real-world holidays such as Christmas and holiday season, Halloween and Day of the Dead, New Year and Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day, Earth Day, Easter, Solstice and Equinox, Festival of Colors, and April Fools' Day.
unique Pokémon GO events that happened to get a re-run in other years and are also included in this category (Adventure Week, Battle Showdown, Bug Out, Fashion Week, Friendship Event, Psychic Spectacular, Water Festival, Stardust Blast, Hatchathon, Secrets of the Jungle, Kanto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh Celebration).
the yearly events Pokémon GO Anniversary, the Pokémon Day event, the Pokémon GO Championship Series tie-in event, and the Global Challenge are also included in this category.

Recurring events[]

Events that happened more than once a year, and are not seasonal events, are recurring events. Examples in this category include Community Days, Pokémon GO Fests, Pokémon GO Safari Zones, Raid Days, Research Days, GO Battle Days, Incense Days, Hatch Days and the weekly Pokémon Spotlight Hours and Legendary Raid Hours.

Community Day[]

Community Day is the first regular recurring event that mostly lasts few-hours on one, particular day of each month and during it players can catch a Pokémon with an exclusive move that cannot be obtain normally in game play. During this event players have a significantly higher chance of obtaining shiny variant of featured Pokémon. It occurs regularly since Jan 20^th, 2018.

Main article: Community Day

Pokémon GO Fest[]

Pokémon GO Fest is a recurring, regional, real-world event, that happens in different locations around the globe. The events give Trainers the ability to catch region-exclusive Pokémon that do not usually appear in these regions. It occurs irregularly since Aug 12^th, 2017.

Main article: Pokémon GO Fest

Pokémon GO Safari Zone[]

Pokémon GO Safari Zone is a recurring, regional, real-world event, that happens in different locations around the globe. The events give Trainers the ability to catch region-exclusive Pokémon that do not usually appear in these regions. It occurs irregularly since Aug 12^th, 2017. Since 2023, a new format of Safari Zone named Pokémon GO City Safari was held by Niantic. Instead of exploring a specific location, the new safari format enables the Trainer to explore the whole hosting city.

Main article: Pokémon GO Safari Zone

Hatch Day[]

Hatch Day is a recurring event themed around hatching Eggs for specific Pokémon.

Main article: Hatch Day

Research Day[]

Research Day is a recurring that is hosted for a few hours and features exclusive Research tasks that may reward a Trainer with a shiny Pokémon. It occurs irregularly since Jan 19^th, 2019.

Main article: Research Day

Raid Day[]

Raid Day is a recurring event that is hosted during a three-hour window and features a Pokémon as Raid Boss. This Pokémon may know one or more exclusive attacks and may also have a chance to be shiny. All Trainers receive up to five Raid Passes from Gyms at no cost. It occurs irregularly since Jul 7^th, 2018.

Main article: Raid Day

Special Raid Event[]

Special Raid Event (also dubbed Week or Weekend) is a recurring event that is hosted during a short period of time and features a returning Legendary Raid Boss which may have a chance to be shiny. It occurs irregularly since Dec 14^th, 2018.

Main article: Special Raid Event

Incense Day[]

Incense Day was a recurring event in which Incense were the only methods to attract the featured Pokémon. Each event had a specific Pokémon with high spawn rate throughout the process, as well as other themed-Pokémon in divided hours. An Incense special offer was available in the shop during these events.

Main article: Incense Day

Pokémon Air Adventures[]

Pokémon Air Adventures is a recurring, regional event that took place for the first time in July, 2021. It features specific regional spawns to celebrate travel around the world.

Main article: Pokémon Air Adventures

GO Battle Day[]

GO Battle Day is a recurring event revolving around GO Battle League. Trainers can complete additional sets of GO Battle League matches with Stardust bonus.

Main article: GO Battle Day

PokéStop Showcase[]

PokéStop Showcases are a recurring event where players contests at PokéStops during certain events. PokéStop Showcases allow Trainers to leave a Pokémon at a PokéStop to enter a timed exhibit for rewards. It occurs regularly since June 25^th, 2023.

Main article: PokéStop Showcase

Legendary Raid Hour[]

Legendary Raid Hour is recurring event that turns every available Gym to a specific Raid Boss during one hour. It usually occurs on Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in local time zone. It occurs regularly since Mar 13^th, 2019.

Main article: Legendary Raid Hour

Pokémon Spotlight Hour[]

Pokémon Spotlight Hour is weekly event that took place for the first time in February, 2020. It occurs on Tuesdays and lasts one hour. During the event there is increased number of Pokémon to appear in wild. When particular Pokémon species is featured in this event and it has its Shiny form released prior to the specific Spotlight Hour, there is a higher probability of catching it due to the increased spawns. It occurs regularly since Feb 4^th, 2020.

Main article: Pokémon Spotlight Hour

Nest migrations[]

Nest Migrations are the technical changes to the game rather than ongoing events in which Pokémon Nests changes species which spawns in the specific locations. It occurs regularly since Jul 29^th, 2016.

Main article: Nest migrations

Discontinued recurring events[]

Some recurring events have not been continued in years which are possibly officially discontinued by Niantic.

Pokémon GO Special Weekend[]

Pokémon GO Special Weekend was a recurring, regional, real-world event

Main article: Pokémon GO Special Weekend

Pokémon GO Week in Korea[]

Pokémon GO Special Weekend was a recurring, regional event in Korea.

Main article: Pokémon GO Week in Korea

Friendship Day[]

Friendship Day was a intended recurring event that occurred only once.

Main article: Friendship Day

Mystery Bonus Hour[]

Mystery Bonus Hour was a recurring event that solely featured bonuses for Candy, Stardust, or XP. It occurred on Thursday evenings in local time zones before being discontinued as a separate event and merged with Pokémon Spotlight Hour. It is discontinued and occurred from Feb 6^th, 2020 to Apr 2^nd, 2020.

Main article: Mystery Bonus Hour

Event Pokémon[]

Event Pokémon are Pokémon that have unique accessories or clothing such at hats, glasses or scarves and can only be obtained during an special event. They cannot be mass-transferred, similar to Legendary, Mythical, or Shiny Pokémon.

Main article: Event Pokémon