Pokemon GO Times Square Mega Mewtwo Event Draws Hundo-Driven Outrage

Pokémon GO’s 10th anniversary celebrations are in full swing, and its latest stunt in New York City has sparked sharp backlash from long-time players. With Times Square closed to the public, influencers gathered to fight and catch Mega Mewtwo Y—reportedly with guaranteed perfect IVs—leaving some community members calling it “the antithesis” of what made the game explode back in 2016.

Times Square Turns Into an Influencer-Only Mega Mewtwo Y Hunt

Yesterday’s event was designed to bring back the early-day energy of Pokémon GO, including the vibe Niantic showed in trailers leading up to the game’s launch. Organizers invited hundreds of influencers, who then banded together to take down a Mega Mewtwo Y that was debuting as part of the celebration.

Each participant received a Master Ball to use on the catch, and the Mega Mewtwo Y was guaranteed to have perfect IVs. Some of the catches were even reported to be shiny.

On the surface, it reads like a strong marketing moment: big-name creators converging on a single landmark location to celebrate the game. In practice, many of the most devoted players saw something else.

A Reddit discussion titled “The NYC event is the antithesis of what made Pokémon GO a phenomenon back in 2016” quickly formed.

At the time of writing, the thread is less than five hours old, already pulling in more than 1,600 upvotes and 200 comments. A large portion of the responses come from users who say they feel excluded or “disenfranchised” by the way the event was structured.

“Gating off Times Square to host an event exclusively for content creators and influencers was one of the most out-of-touch decisions in the history of this game. Pokémon GO became a global phenomenon because of little moments experienced by millions of average players,” wrote a user named Christophisis. “The ‘plebeians’ that weren’t deemed worthy to attend this event, even if they were in the nearby vicinity, are what made Pokémon GO what it was and has been, not a relative handful of people in light of the larger player base. To make matters worse, everyone in attendance of the event got a guaranteed Hundo Mewtwo, which proves that Niantic has always been able to flip a switch to grant so-called ‘impossible’ awards on command.”

That sentiment was echoed by others in the thread. “It was a very weird feeling watching a party I wasn’t invited to where the guests got something AMAZING,” said jessiehuff. 0rganicMach1ne added, “Catering to content creators or thinking of them and how they play when designing games is a cancer to gaming.”

Player Reaction: “Messed Up” and Concerns About How Rewards Were Handled

The core criticism is twofold: first, that closing off Times Square effectively limited participation to creators and influencers, and second, that the event’s rewards included guaranteed high-end outcomes that regular attendees couldn’t access.

In the middle of the discussion, Christophisis’s argument is repeated almost verbatim in the thread: blocking access to host an influencer-only gathering is framed as a major misstep for a game whose success, the poster argues, came from moments shared by everyday players.

For many commenters, this also raised a broader question about fairness and design philosophy—particularly the claim that the developer can grant “impossible” rewards when it wants to.

Meanwhile, the Pokémon GO team’s approach is being described bluntly by some as “dropping the ball.”

Related Mystery and What to Watch Next

The timing of the Times Square backlash is also being linked by some players to another recent incident: the famous Mewtwo statue at the entrance of the Shibuya Pokémon Center in Tokyo reportedly vanished mysteriously yesterday.

As Pokémon GO continues its tenth anniversary run, the big thing to watch is whether future events keep leaning into influencer-focused set pieces—or whether Niantic adjusts how it balances spectacle with access for the wider community.