In line with the major Grindfest theme week on MeinMMO, our author Paul Kutzner has asked the question: Is Pokémon GO actually an MMORPG?
There are many contents in Pokémon GO where you can spend countless hours. Whether you want to have stronger monsters for raids or the battle leagues or are looking for beautiful, special Pokémon.
I myself have already spent an unimaginable amount of time in Pokémon GO. After all, I started right at launch in 2016. A time that still holds wonderful, but also painful memories for me. Recently, I asked myself the question – is Pokémon GO actually an MMORPG? And the answer isn’t so simple.
This week, you can expect exciting articles every day about the topic MMORPG. Included: nostalgic retrospectives, exciting analyses from prominent industry veterans, previews of upcoming online role-playing games, and fun streams.
Here’s the program for the great MMORPG theme week 2026 from MeinMMO
Simple Question, Difficult Answer
Many players, but no real community: While many aspects of the game can be handled individually or solely, like catching monsters in standard gameplay, during events such as Community Day or, of course, participating in the battle league, there are also many points in the game where you run into problems alone.
There are raids and Dyna-bosses that you can tackle alone, but there are also particularly tough specimens that you struggle with solo. And even if you team up with other players for this, I personally still miss an important aspect that is standard in MMORPGs: guilds.
You can coordinate and organize raids in person or using Campfire. However, the true sense of community that a guild provides does not appear here.
A character, but no development: Another crucial point in clarifying the question for me is the character in the game. You can customize the appearance, dress them up, and, of course, reach new levels. However, reaching new levels doesn’t feel as rewarding as it does in MMORPGs.
Neither are there new points that can be distributed to skills, nor does it have any impact on the gameplay itself.
Lots to do, but no quests: Although you have a lot of activities in Pokémon GO that you can pursue, and there are constantly events, a classic feature of MMORPGs is missing for me: quests. Of course, there are special research tasks and limited-time research tasks that resemble quests, but these feel different to me.
While you generally have only, as the name suggests, a limited time to complete limited-time research tasks, you receive special research tasks very rarely and sometimes only behind paywalls. No comparison to a classic MMORPG where you can complete hundreds of quests from interesting quest givers.
A trading system, but no professions: The profession system is also, for me, an essential part of MMORPGs. The crafting of items and equipment that make your characters stronger or can be traded with other players is completely missing in Pokémon GO.
Of course, you can trade Pokémon here. But that’s not enough for me to call the game an MMORPG.
Not an MMORPG, but an MMO: For the stated reasons, I find it difficult to label Pokémon GO as an MMORPG. But due to the persistent game world, millions of participants, and the ability to complete various activities in the game together, I can at least do one thing: I can at least label Pokémon GO as an MMO.
Do you see it differently? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments. While the Grindfest is running on MeinMMO, there are also some contents awaiting you in the world of Pokémon GO. If you want to know what they are, feel free to check our overview with all events in July 2026 in Pokémon GO.
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!