How To Accurately Work Out How Much Time You’ve Spent Playing Pokemon Go

Summary

Pokemon Go is my most-played game.
But how long exactly have I played it for?
I try to work this out.

Someone asked me what my most-played game is this week, and without hesitation I said 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Go. I’ve clocked four figures in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Apex Legends (maybe five if you count 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:watching the esport), b🐻ut I’m certain it doesn’t come𝕴 close to Niantic’s augmented reality mobile game.

Over the course of seven years, I’ve dipped in and out of Pokemon Go. I fell off in its second year, returning for Eevee Community Day and realising that not only could I get a shiny Jolteon, but could also fight in raids and do far mor😼e exciting thin🔯gs than when I left.

I’ve similarly fallen off in the las𝕴t year, playing more casually and (gasp!) skipping Community Days and special events. That’s the nature of starting a family, and I don’t regret it, but I still switch on the game for that nostalgia hit every so often. But how often? I set out to work out – approximately – how many hours I’ve put into this game and come up with a simple (ha) formula so you can do the same. Without further ado, let’s get stuck into some maths.

Pokemon Go For A Walk

A Pokemon Go Trainer walking through a forest with the Daily Adventure Incense activated

I started by working out whaꦛt I’ve done the most when playing Pokemon Go. The answer is obvious: walking. Luckily, Pokemon Go tracks this fairly accurately. There’s a little GPS drift and my phone’s pedometer always thinks I’ve walked a little further than Go does, but it’ll do.

I reckon I walk at about 3.5km per hour when playing Pokemon Go. The average walking speed is 5km per hour, but I tend to meander when flinging balls at monsters, so I cut it back a little. This also accounts for stopping to catch a tricky Pokemon or farm a🎃 nest.

Pokemon Go reckons I’ve walked🤡 6,779km. At 3.5km/h, that’s an astonishing 1,937 hours of walking. That’s already more time than I’ve played Apex for, but I think I’ve put more hours in than this.

How Long Does It Take To Catch A Pokemon?

For every Pokemon caught on the move, there’s probably another that 🀅I caught while sitting down, taking a break, or camped out at a nest. I estimate it takes ten seconds to catch a Pokemon in one ball. Half of those are already covered because they were caught while walking. Minutes spent on powerful Pokemon or Legendaries in Raids are counterbalanced by Pokemon caught with the quick catch glitch. So, 37,398 Pokemon caught, divided by two and multiplied by ten seconds (alternatively, just multiply it by five) per encounter is an additional 52 hours.

I’ve never used a Go Plus device.

We’ve got to take into account raids, too. I’ve won 227 raids, and 321 Legendary raids. I’ve probably lost a couple, but🦩 those are negligible. We focus on our Ws here. But raids can take vastly different amounts of time – I remember being a part of a crowd of a hund𒀰red people on Brighton seafront all taking down Mewtwo like a seagull swallowing a chip whole – but I’d estimate Legendary raids take on average three minutes to tackle.

Image of Hisuian Samurott on the sand with water and Pokemon Go Raids behind

For regular raids, I tend to stick to one- to three-star lobbies, so I’d guess a minute tops, some even less. Add onto this the compulsory two minute raid timer before the fight (I haven’t done a single raid since the skip button was implemented) and we can fairly accurately estimate my t𒁃ime spent raiding. 227*(1+2) for regular raids and 321*(3+2) for Legendaries. That’s a total of 2,286 minutes, or 38 hours, spent raidin🏅g. I’ve spent over 18 hours waiting in those f*cking lobbies.

I Want To Be The Very Best, Like No-One Ever Was

Pokemon-Lets-Go-Eevee-Evolve — Via Attack of the Fanboy

Evolving and purifying Pokemon takes time. Specifically 20 seconds of time. I timed it. Thanks ඣto Pokemon Go’s stat tracker, I know I’ve purifie﷽d 363 Pokemon and evolved 1,318. That’s nine hours.

I’ve traded 800 Pokemon, I think about 750 of those ෴to my brother. I recently timed a trade and reckon it takes about 45 seconds to complete, including menu navigation and choosing your monsters. 45*800 i🅘s 36,000 seconds, or ten hours.

What about battling? I’ve dabbled in Go Battle League, going hard some seasons and completely abandoning it in others. I’ve wasted millions of stardust powering up the likes of Medicham and Bastiodon, and my Deoxys Defence/Vigoroth/Altaria team tears through opponents. In total, I’ve battled 959 times in Go Battle🐼 League, winning just over 60 percent of th🐻e time. I’ll take it. But how long does a GBL match take?

Image of five different Pokemon facing each other split with an image of three Go Battle League symbols

I quickly competed in five matches, timing them to find an average. They took 2.30, 2.14, 2.30, 2.48, and 1.46. The last 𓄧match was❀ a rage quit. The average there is 2.22, but it’s worth noting I used a strong team at rank one on the ladder. I faced 500CP Eevee and monotype teams, hardly an accurate look at my time spent climbing the ladder. I didn’t even use a shield in some of these matches, let alone lose a Pokemon.

Professional matches in Pokemon Go esports (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:yes, that’s a thing) take around a minute longer than my 2.22 average, so I’d imagine that my matches higher up t🥃he ladder are somewhere in the middle. I’ll add 30 seconds onto the average to take into account more difficult fights, menus, and grabbing rewards. So that’s 2.52, call it three minutes per battle, times 959 battles. 48 hours of battling. Blimey.

Any Other Business?

Image of a PokeStop with Pikachu, Lapras, and Magikarp around it.

Are there any other elements to Pokemon Go? PokeStop spinning (21,994) takes a second and is usually done on the move, so is included in the walking total. I usually skip the egg hatching animation, but it still takes around ten sec♋onds, including the monster popping up, so I’ll add on 31,350 seconds (8.5 hours) for that.

The time spent playing with my buddy, feeding berries to both it and to my monsters at Gyms is minutes at most. But battling at Gyms might be something. I’ve won 556 Gym battles, each of which took maybe 30 seconds, including🧔 the loading screens 🐻etc.? This is a guesstimate, but if you haven’t realised by now that I’m doing a lot of guesswork by this point, it’s too late for you. 278 minutes of Gym battles is 4.5 hours.

Pokémon Go Player Assaults Gamers After Losing Gym Battle Header — Via: Dual Shockers

So, that simple formula I promised you at the top of the page. About that. I&rsquo🃏;m having trouble reconciling measurements calculated in hours (kilometres walked per hour, for example) versus those measured in seconds (catching, evolving, etc.) without making this formula incredibly complicated or plain wrong. I’m a writer, not a mathematician! So, instead of a formula, you can pop your own numbers in place of mine as you work your way through this article, and add up the totals. I’d love to see how long you’ve played.

Oh, my total? My definitely, perfectly accurate guesstima🐻tion of how long I’ve played Pokemon Go for is 2,107 hours. That’s a lot of Pokemon. And I haven’t even added the three hours I played last night to work out how long things take and getting engrossed in three round💦s of Go Battle League. So call it 2,110 hours. I don’t know what to do with this information. I hope you liked this maths-based article, I guess.