'Pokemon Go' News & Updates: Study Shows That It Improves Physical Activity; 'New Pokémon' Update Is Disappointing?

It cannot be denied when the Pokemon Go epidemic is all over the world, Pokemon catchers can be found everywhere as obsessed catchers went out of their sanctuary to hit Gyms and Pokéstops.

According to a study published by The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), Pokémon Go improved physical activity for players ages 18 to 35 in the US, but only for a short period of time. Researchers found what within six weeks of first installing the game; users had gone back to their pre-Pokémon activity levels based on the iPhone's step tracking totals, as reported by Engadget.

Users were found to have taken an average of nearly 1,000 more steps a day during the first week of playing the game than they did in the month before downloading the game on their phones. That is equivalent to an estimated 11 more minutes of walking in a 24-hour period.

According to the information provided, the study was conducted by researchers from Harvard namely: Katherine B. Howe, Christian Suharlim, Peter Ueda, Daniel Howe, Ichiro Kawachi and Eric B. Rimm and someone from Sweden (Ueda) used the Amazon Mechanical Turk to survey 560 Pokémen and Pokéwomen in the United States (18-35 years old), who installed Pokémon GO on their iPhone 6 series smartphones, to determine how many daily steps they took for the 4 weeks prior to and 6 weeks after installing the game.

It also included users who were not able to play the game yet for comparison. Researchers found that sex, age, race, body weight, location (urban, suburban or rural) and 'walkability' of the nearby area did not have an effect on activity levels, as reported by Forbes.

While the physical benefits that Pokemon Go has brought, the game was noted to have helped people who suffer from anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Meanwhile, the latest update for Pokemon Go has been rather disappointing. Forbes noted that the developer mostly added small, lateral content that could have made the early days better but did not offer much in the way of new experiences for veteran players.

The updates mostly only feature new Pokemons here and now which got trickier to catch all of them. Aside from that, nothing else signifies great improvement. If that continues to be the case, we may as well now that Pokemon Go users will decrease.