Pokemon Go: One Month Later

pikachu snuggie nick johnson Pokémon Go — Johnson and his girlfriend are greeted by a hotel employee in a Pikachu snuggie in Paris.

On July 6th, Pokémon Go was released — and the world went absolutely crazy.

Before too long, Pokémon Go became a veritable phenomenon, with everybody from Justin Bieber to Hillary Clinton to mom-and-pop shops looking to get in on the action.

It didn't take long before controversy struck, either, with players getting themselves into legal trouble or real actual physical harm while hunting for Pokémon.

It's been more than a little insane to see the reach and impact Pokémon Go has had on the real world.

Here are the 15 best, weirdest, and most wonderful things to happen in the month since Pokémon Go came out.

On July 8th, just two days after the game was released in the United States, a Wyoming teenager found a dead body while hunting for Pokémon near a river.

Read more about that here.

And some players got into some downright dangerous situations, like crashing their car into a parked police car because they were paying attention to Pokémon Go on their phone...

...or the guy who literally fell off a cliff because he wasn't paying attention to where he was going while playing.

Read more about that here.

But those kinds of cases are the minority, and players love Pokémon Go. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton made a Pokémon Go joke on the campaign trail...

"I don't know who created Pokémon Go," the former Secretary of State said, apparently unaware that the game was a collaboration between Nintendo and the Pokémon Company. "But I'm trying to figure out how we get them to have 'Pokemon-Go-to the polls.'"

...and Justin Bieber was caught playing the game in the middle of New York City's Central Park.

Speaking of Central Park, it turned into a mob scene in mid-July when Vaporeon, a relatively rare and desirable pocket monster, appeared in the middle of the night. Hundreds of players swarmed to catch it.

Read more about that here.

Vine star Logan Paul totally took advantage of that craze when he instigated a near-riot when he shouted that there was a rare Pokémon nearby in the middle of New York.

LOLOLOL POKÉMON GO IS INSANE! pic.twitter.com/dDOkCUXzuE
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) July 20, 2016

Authorities have been trying really hard to keep people safe while playing, with local police departments urging people not to trespass or otherwise break any rules in their hunt for Pokémon. It's gotten to the point where Japanese authorities have had to keep players away from the danger zone around the site of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

fukushima nuclear meltdown — In this Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 photo, members of the media in protective suits and masks, escorted by an official of Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, second left, during a tour at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

Read more about that here.

The hype reached its peak when Brooklyn-based Nick Johnson became the first to come forward as having all 142 Pokémon available in the United States — which won him a free, sponsored trip around the world to catch the three only available abroad.

Read more about that here.

Johnson's travels earned him at least one would-be rival: Peter-Joey Pham, a Wall Street finance worker who decided at the last second that he would fly to Sydney and try to beat Johnson to completing his collection. But in the end, Pham gave up when his bike collided with a car in Sydney and did some personal damage.

joey pham pokemon — Scenes from Joey Pham's Sydney Pokémon adventure.

You can read more about that here.

One guy, Los Angeles-based Benny Affonso, actually quit his job to play Pokémon Go full-time. His big idea is to act almost as a club promoter, bringing people in to local businesses that want more attention from Pokémon Go players.

A furor erupted recently, too, when it turned out that legendary Pokémon were accidentally released into the wild. A whole firestorm of controversy broke out, as the people who found Articuno — a very rare bird that's not even supposed to be in the game right now — were accused of faking it, right up until Niantic took responsibility. Oops.

articuno pokemon go — (This is a faked screenshot. Clearly.)

You can read more about that here.

Silicon Valley CEOs are into it: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a Pokémon Go player, while Apple CEO Tim Cook has used it to highlight the power of apps. Cook, in particular, has reason to love it: The game's made an estimated $160 million in gross revenue, of which Apple would take 30%.

Sources: Quartz, Business Insider

Not everybody loves the Pokémon Go phenomenon. Some government officials in Russia are convinced that the game is the work of foreign intelligence agencies like the CIA, sent to gather location data on the citizenry. That's why there's going to be another, similar game called "Know. Moscow. Photo" about "capturing" historical Russian figures.

Sources: Kotaku, Business Insider

But possibly the craziest thing to happen was when Nintendo's shares shot way, way up to new highs...right up until investors realized that Nintendo actually had very little to do with making the game.

Read more about that here.

Nintendo actually issued a memo to investors reminding them that it was Niantic and the Pokémon Company that made the game, not them. Oops, again.

Read more about that here.

So yeah, it's been a weird month, ruled by our new Pokémon overlords. But data indicates the game is maintaining its popularity, with new features promised to be coming sooner rather than later. So here's to more Pokémon Go.

Here are the 15 craziest things that have happened since Pokémon Go came out

On July 8th, just two days after the game was released in the United States, a Wyoming teenager found a dead body while hunting for Pokémon near a river.

And some players got into some downright dangerous situations, like crashing their car into a parked police car because they were paying attention to Pokémon Go on their phone...

...or the guy who literally fell off a cliff because he wasn't paying attention to where he was going while playing.

But those kinds of cases are the minority, and players love Pokémon Go. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton made a Pokémon Go joke on the campaign trail...

...and Justin Bieber was caught playing the game in the middle of New York City's Central Park.

Speaking of Central Park, it turned into a mob scene in mid-July when Vaporeon, a relatively rare and desirable pocket monster, appeared in the middle of the night. Hundreds of players swarmed to catch it.

Vine star Logan Paul totally took advantage of that craze when he instigated a near-riot when he shouted that there was a rare Pokémon nearby in the middle of New York.

The hype reached its peak when Brooklyn-based Nick Johnson became the first to come forward as having all 142 Pokémon available in the United States — which won him a free, sponsored trip around the world to catch the three only available abroad.

One guy, Los Angeles-based Benny Affonso, actually quit his job to play Pokémon Go full-time. His big idea is to act almost as a club promoter, bringing people in to local businesses that want more attention from Pokémon Go players.

Silicon Valley CEOs are into it: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a Pokémon Go player, while Apple CEO Tim Cook has used it to highlight the power of apps. Cook, in particular, has reason to love it: The game's made an estimated $160 million in gross revenue, of which Apple would take 30%.

But possibly the craziest thing to happen was when Nintendo's shares shot way, way up to new highs...right up until investors realized that Nintendo actually had very little to do with making the game.

Nintendo actually issued a memo to investors reminding them that it was Niantic and the Pokémon Company that made the game, not them. Oops, again.

So yeah, it's been a weird month, ruled by our new Pokémon overlords. But data indicates the game is maintaining its popularity, with new features promised to be coming sooner rather than later. So here's to more Pokémon Go.