by Stacey Dingwall

Due to the number of headlines, stories and anecdotes it’s generated, you would be forgiven for thinking that Pokémon Go had been around for months. In fact, the app only officially launched in the UK on the 14^th of July, following its initial rollout a week before in the US, Australia and New Zealand. In amongst reports of players straying onto private property, construction sites and train tracks, as well as criminals and police forces using the game’s lure function to their advantage, have been suggestions that the app has real potential to improve the health and fitness of its players.

Transformed from its 90s incarnation of a trading cards game into a GPS powered app, Pokémon Go nevertheless retains its main aim: gotta catch ‘em all. Pokémon appear to players – trainers as they are known in the game – as they move around their area. Crucially, some Pokémon are only available in certain areas (or continents!), meaning that trainers will not be able to achieve the game’s objective unless they move around further than their immediate location.

Gotta catch the…health benefits?

This is where the potential health benefits lie. The first player to catch them all (or all of those available in his country, at least), Roberto Vazquez told journalists that his quest had led to him walking 165 miles (12-25 per day), losing 25lbs in the process. Plastic surgeons Clinic Compare have even managed to calculate how many Pokémon the average person would have to catch in order to lose weight, by comparing the number of calories burned per hour with the average amount of time it takes players to catch a single Pokémon. For example, according to their estimates, it would take 16.27 days for a 165lb female playing the game for 43 minutes each day to lose 1lb, while jogging at a speed of five miles per hour.

It has also been suggested that the app has the potential to help children meet their recommended physical activity levels, without even realising it. With evidence indicating that children are only almost half as likely to want to play outdoors than their parents did at their age, choosing to stay indoors and watch TV or play video games instead, it could be argued that Pokémon Go presents the perfect opportunity to combine indoor and outdoor play.

What does the evidence say?

It’s important to acknowledge that these examples are either anecdotal or based on averages not actually generated by the app itself. While it’s still too early to collect reliable statistics on the game’s potential health impact, qualified medical professionals have stated their belief that it may be a force for good. In an editorial for the BMJ, Glasgow-based GP Margaret McCartney notes the potential for Pokémon Go and similar apps to “make the streets an active, reclaimed playground”, which she describes as a “tantalising side effect” of an app that is not specifically marketed as having the potential to positively impact on players’ health and wellbeing.

Pokémon Go is not the first entertainment-based game to have caught the eye of professionals and policymakers due to its potential for promoting physical activity. Evaluations of Nintendo Wii Fit, for example, have suggested that regular use has the potential to have a positive impact on different groups of people, including those with MS. Regular use is obviously essential in order to generate reliable evidence of whether or not Pokémon Go can have any genuine impact on health and wellbeing. Although cynics may argue that the app is just another fad that will soon die down, the data suggests it’s here to stay for at least the foreseeable future, with 6.1 million trainers in Britain alone, 87% of which were still playing a week after downloading.

Follow us on Twitter to see what developments in public and social policy are interesting our research team. If you found this article interesting, you may also like to read our profile of 12 great STEM apps for primary and secondary pupils.