The Pokémon Go Central Park Stampede

###The Pokémon Go Central Park Stampede

Central Park, New York City, 2016 — Hundreds of people sprinted blindly through Central Park late at night just to catch a rare digital monster on their phones.

In July 2016, a new augmented-reality mobile game called Pokémon Go had millions of people glued to their screens. Players walked through the real world tracking digital monsters using their phone's GPS. But human crowd-following instincts soon took over.

Late one night, a highly rare digital creature known as a "Vaporeon" spawned inside New York City's Central Park. Word of the monster instantly exploded across social media, alerting nearby players.

What followed was a literal stampede. Hundreds of gamers sprinted blindly through the park in the dark, desperate to catch the digital prize. It wasn't a violent riot, but a bizarre case of extreme, gamified tunnel vision.

How It Went Down
Game launchesJuly 2016Rare VaporeonspawnsLate nightNews hitssocial mediaHundredssprint blindlyCentral ParkCars left intrafficDowntown Manhattan
Crazy-o-Meter
Hard to believe
No.24
A chaotic nighttime street scene in downtown Manhattan where a line of cars is stopped dead in the middle of the road. The car doors are flung wide open, and exhaust fumes puff from the tailpipes of the still-running vehicles. Dozens of frantic, wide-eyed adults are sprinting away from their empty cars toward a dark, tree-lined park. Every single person in the running mob is holding a glowing smartphone inches from their face, completely ignoring a baffled police officer standing with his hands on his hips amidst the empty, idling cars.

The Pokémon Go Central Park Stampede — Central Park, New York City, 2016