Pokémon Go Fests are the biggest events in the Pokémon Go calendar and give fans a chance to catch brand new Pokémon and, more importantly, find a ton of rare Shiny Pokémon throughout every three-day weekend.
Since 2023, Go Fest has been split between two parts—a Park experience that offers unique in-person activities and events, and a second city experience that spawns all the event exclusive Pokémon around the entire town that it’s hosted in.
For many Pokémon Go trainers only looking for Shiny Pokémon, the city event is usually the place to be, with some trainers theorizing for the past year that the city experience has an increased chance of finding Shiny Pokémon over the park experience. Niantic, however, has officially debunked this as of today.
At Pokémon Go Fest Madrid on June 14, Dot Esports got to sit down and talk to Pokémon Go director Michael Steranka and discuss all things Go, including if Galar Pokémon would ever make an appearance and the recent discussion of the lack of wild Pokémon since the start of 2024.
Steranka laughed and made an official statement to put the myth to rest when asked about the popular fan theory with shiny rates at Go Fest.
“I can definitively confirm that Shiny rates do not change between the in-park experience and the in-city experience for our GO fests or any of our major live events,” Steranka said. “When you’re in the city; you have more opportunities to encounter more Pokemon, which increases your chances.”
Steranka concluded that when you are in the park, Pokémon Go players seem to focus more on research tasks than catching Pokémon, leading to less tapping on phones. Park experiences are also mainly a way for people to hunt a specific Pokémon due to their specific habitat zones, so players might miss out on other Pokémon as a consequence.
In contrast, everything spawns at once in the city, leading to a much broader pool and higher chances you’ll come across random Shiny Pokémon.
