‘Pokemon Go’: Has the Spawn Rate Been Increased?

'Pokemon Go' is available now for iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)

‘Pokemon Go’ is available now for iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)

The spawn rate in Pokemon Go appears to have been dramatically altered.

On September 26th, the game experienced another nest migration; the output of nests all around the world was changed, and some nests were removed entirely. But the new changes don’t appear to have been limited to nests. Trainers are speculating that Niantic may have also increased the rate at which Pokemon are spawned.

Keep in mind that this information is still rather early and based mostly on anecdotal evidence rather than hard data. But an overwhelming number of players are reporting on social media that a significant amount of spawns have been added around them, particularly near densely populated areas.

Players are still trying to figure out what Niantic did, exactly, but one interesting theory is that the company is using new cellphone data to more accurately tie spawns into places where trainers will be playing, therefore avoiding a situation where someone is playing the game and finding no Pokemon around them at all.

“My guess is that Niantic is finally trying to address the rural player problem by incorporating cell data that they’ve gathered on Pokemon Go players since the game launched,” one Reddit user speculated. “As many players suggested at launch, this would be the most effective way to make sure all players who have downloaded and played Pokemon Go have access to at least some spawns, and surely that occurred to Niantic as well.”

Unfortunately, it isn’t just new spawns, though. In addition to spawns being added, many spawn points have also been removed, so depending on where you live, you may wake up this morning to find significantly more Pokemon than usual or significantly fewer. And while in theory it seems this would help out players in rural areas, some are reporting that their area is finally swarming with Pokemon, while others are complaining that absolutely nothing has changed.

At the moment, nobody really has any idea why that is. But in the days to come, we will likely find out more about whether the spawn rate has actually increased, as well as if it’s tied into cellphone data or not.

This all comes at the same time as the third major nest migration. Unlike in previous migrations, this one may have been completely randomized, with the changes in output being totally different in nests all over the world. Some nests have also disappeared from the game, just as some spawn points are no longer showing up.

So what has been your experience with the new spawn rate? Are you running into more Pokemon than you were before? Or are there even fewer of them? Let us know in the comments below!