By Cole Villena
DURHAM — There’s a story behind every Pokémon in Terri DeMaeyer’s collection.
She caught Pikachu, the Pokémon franchise’s ubiquitous mascot, while visiting the Grand Canyon. The dragon Pokémon Rayquaza was given to her as a peace offering from an estranged friend. She reached Pokémon GO’s highest level months ago and hasn’t missed a day of playing since.
She’s also 53 years old.
“You’re probably looking at me like that because I’m old, and I’m playing this and I’m telling you all this stuff,” she says. She laughs and brushes it off — she’s not even close to the oldest Pokémon GO player she knows.
Though it’s not the cultural juggernaut it was upon its release in 2016, Pokémon GO is still one of the most-played mobile games in the United States. Three years after its release, some of its most devoted players are older adults like DeMaeyer. According to mobile app analytic company Apptopia, 19 percent of today’s users are 51 years old or older.
“That’s my ‘me time,'” DeMaeyer says. “It just takes the stress out of life.”
For one month in a hot 2016 summer, Pokémon GO was king. Launched on July 6, 2016, the app was many Americans’ first exposure to augmented reality — the use of technology to blend the real world with a virtual in-game world — and drew more than 28 million daily users at its U.S. peak. Hillary Clinton even called on voters to “Pokémon GO to the polls.”
DeMaeyer found the constant Pokémon talk impossible to ignore. She downloaded the game on a whim one day on the way home from work, if only to figure out what everyone was talking about.
Her son showed her the ins and outs — how to catch a Pokémon, how to spin a Pokéstop to get items, and how to track what she’d caught using the Pokédex, “a high-tech Pokémon encyclopedia.”
“I got addicted,” she said, laughing. “All of a sudden, I understood their language.”
She mapped out “Poké runs,” walking and driving routes designed to maximize in-game rewards. She joined online groups to get the latest intel on rare Pokémon sightings in Durham. She even dubbed her white Jeep the “Poké Jeep,” decorating it with a Pokémon logo spare tire cover, a Pokémon cushion and a sticker with her in-game team’s logo that said “CAUTION: VEHICLE MAKES FREQUENT STOPS.”
“I don’t know a thing else about phones and tech, but I could show you anything about the Pokédex,” she said.
Jonah Sharkey, 46, is an early adopter of new video games and technology — his in-game username loosely translates as “King of All Nerds” in Japanese. It’s not surprising that his first catch came just 11 days after the game’s release, but he started playing as a way to connect with his anime and cartoon-loving son.
“We’ll always come back to one of the Pokémon series,” he said. “It’s just been something that we have always shared.”
Much like DeMaeyer, Cheryl Sewell, 64, was introduced to Pokémon GO by her son. She initially fell in love with the ability to collect colorful Pokémon without taking up actual space in her home — “I can have 2,000 things in my purse … who wouldn’t want that?”
She quickly realized it’s impossible to build a collection of Pokémon without getting out and exploring the world around her. Her world had gotten “really small, really fast” after starting a work-from-home career in Durham a few years earlier.
“Basically, I’m at home 24 hours a day, unless I make myself go outside,” she said. “With Pokémon, every day at lunchtime, I go out and go through the park. It’s a good outlet for me.”
She discovered new favorite spots like American Tobacco Campus and The Parlour ice cream shop, as well as a thriving community of other players at in-person events like the one Sharkey attended in Chapel Hill.
Sewell was shocked to see just how diverse the people around her frantically tapping their phones were. This aspect of the game — making real-world friends with people almost nothing like her — was something she never could have predicted.
“There will be all races, all religions, all ages, all colors — just a delightful group of diverse people — and it’s like we’re talking a common language,” she said. “We’re talking Pokémon, and everybody’s happy. I love that aspect of it.”
If the game’s revenue is anything to go by, Pokémon isn’t going anywhere. Niantic brought in an estimated $262 million in U.S. revenue last year and $795 million worldwide. That’s even more revenue than the game drew in during its 2016 heyday and a 35 percent increase from 2017.
Sharkey says Pokémon GO’s constant updates have kept him coming back. Since the 2016 launch, Niantic has more than quadrupled the number of catchable Pokémon, added new ways to play with and trade Pokémon and added daily tasks to reward daily play. Sharkey doesn’t think he’s missed a day of playing since January.
Many of those updates have given players new ways and reasons to play together, side-by-side.
“You never know who you’re standing next to,” Sewell said. “They could be a Ph.D. candidate, or it could be a borderline homeless person, and as long as they’ve got a phone, it doesn’t matter.”
DeMaeyer agreed. She can spot the telltale signs of a Pokémon GO player — hanging out near Pokéstops, frantic swiping and tapping and even the occasional decked-out Jeep, a mile away. It instantly gives her something to talk about with complete strangers.
“I’ll see someone playing, and I’ll just talk,” she said. “I think it’s the coolest thing. When I was in my 20s, I wouldn’t do that.”
