For Pokemon Go players, Starbucks is now a known location for them as the biggest coffee chain has become a big part of the game. This is due to Niantic's previous partnership with Starbucks which made their several locations into PokeStops and Gyms. However, it seems like their collaboration has grown so much faster adding thousands of new locations recently.
According to the report from Attack of the Fanboy, Niantic has added another 5,000 new Starbucks locations to the existing 7,800 from last year, which resulted to a total of somewhere around 13,000 locations. These new additions will either be PokeStops or Gyms but there are no further details regarding how many of each were added. Meanwhile, Starbucks even honors Niantic for their successful collaboration by making an exclusive Pokemon Go Frappuccino.
On the other hand, Niantic CEO John Hanke mentions that the physical location section of the partnership is vital as they are finding ways to encourage exploration, implementation and real world social communication by the use of technology. Apparently, Starbucks offers an awesome platform due to it is roots across the United States. Hanke also added that the Starbucks promotion really makes sense as this would not cause any problems to regular Pokemon Go players.
Meanwhile, it was seen lately how these holiday-themed events provide an impact to the game as Pokemon Go finished 2016 with its highest weekly income since its arrival. As reported, it has resulted into approximately $5 million being consumed on in-app purchases only for December 31st alone. Niantic has done a great job in keeping their fans engaged by giving them fair amount of bonuses during these special events.
As of the moment, Niantic's plan for this year has not been detailed yet. However, it is expected that the company will launched their series of announcement anytime soon including their future feature additions and major updates such as Gen 2, Trading and Battle System.
