The players of Pokémon Go have a reason to celebrate at the beginning of 2021. That's because Niantic, responsible for the augmented reality monster game, announced the purchase of Mayhem. The intention is to expand the game's online community.

The Mayhem group is new, founded in 2017, but has become a reference in the creation of online communities for gamers. The platform allows fans of a particular game to self-organize to discuss and share information about the games.

Niantic says the acquisition of Mayhem will “accelerate the work [Niantic is] doing to inspire people to explore the world together.” The company’s goal is to strengthen its relationship with the community to keep Pokémon Go alive for many years to come.

New directions for Pokémon Go

Mayhem CEO and Co-Founder Ivan Zhou said that: “In this new shared vision, games don’t just connect people online – they can physically move people and bring them together in real life,” he said. “It was clear to our team that Niantic would be one of the most important companies in shaping how people interact with each other in the future.”

By maintaining a strong community, Niantic prevents Pokémon Go end up like Minecraft Earth. Mojang's game works in a similar way to the monster game, but suffered from a lack of players, especially during the pandemic, and its closure was confirmed for June of this year. The failure of the augmented reality version of one of the most successful games in history would have triggered an alert at the American company.

On its official website, the Niantic explained what happened with the purchase of Mayhem. “Mayhem was founded in 2017 with the goal of bringing gamers together through live, interactive experiences. They have built a successful online platform for players to organize custom game formats for their communities,” the text reads.