
On May 11th 2017, Russian courts convicted vlogger Ruslan Sokolovsky, 22, of insulting religious believers and inciting hatred after he was arrested in August 2016 for playing Pokémon GO in a church. In 2016, police detained Sokolovsky for uploading a video of himself playing the game in the Church of All Saints, Yekaterinburg.

Brooklyn-based Nick Johnson was the first person to officially catch all 142 original Pokemon available in the US, and the first to catch all 145 original Pokemon that were globally available. After his first feat became public, he got sponsored by Marriott Rewards and Expedia to travel to Paris, Hong Kong, and Sydney to catch the missing three.
Nintendo's market capital rose over $7 billion dollars within a few days of the game's release.

It's possible to obtain Pikachu as the starter Pokemon. If the player walks away from the regular starter trio a total of four times, a Pikachu will appear along with the starters.
The game was banned in Iran by the High Council of Virtual Spaces, the official body in the country which looks over online activity, due to unspecified "security concerns".
Before deciding to ban the game, Iranian authorities were waiting to see to what extent Niantic might co-operate with them.
Before deciding to ban the game, Iranian authorities were waiting to see to what extent Niantic might co-operate with them.