For many trainers, it has been a time to say goodbye in recent days, as one of the largest communities for Pokémon GO has announced its end. We at MeinMMO show you what this is about and how the trainers are reacting to the announcement.
Which community is it about? One of the largest and most important resources for trainers in recent years has been the team around The Silph Road
. Together with Pokémon GO fans, data miners, and community trainers, they attempted to analyze the mobile game and understand the background better.
They conducted research on spawns, hatch and shiny rates, showcased strong teams for the GO Battle League, and created maps of Pokémon nests, among other things. In the corresponding Reddit community, they also provided trainers with a suitable place for exchanges and participated in Niantic’s Ambassador Program recently.
However, The Silph Road has now announced its end and is systematically taking a large part of its services offline. How this came about, which services you can still use, and how the trainers are reacting to this news, we have summarized for you below.
The Silph Road says goodbye “The End of an Era”
Why is The Silph Road stopping? On the evening of May 12, the team around The Silph Road announced its end in an extensive statement in their subreddit. The user dronpes writes (via reddit.com): “The end of an era: After seven extraordinary years, the Silph Road team is ceasing its activities. We thank you all for accompanying us on this remarkable journey.”
In the following post, he elaborates on the reasons for their decision, explaining that they were saved last year through Niantic’s sponsorship, as their operating costs were far too high. Thanks to the sponsorship as part of the Community Ambassador Program, they finally had the opportunity to continue their activities without needing to run ads.
However, the partnership with Pokémon GO has now ended again, and the financial pressures are still enormous. On top of that, there is the current dynamics and situation surrounding the game. For this reason, they have made the difficult decision to end the majority of their services.
Which services from The Silph Road remain? The subreddit of The Silph Road will continue to be maintained by the moderators, so you can still use it to exchange ideas in the future. And the research should continue primarily on the Discord server, although they will only publish their results in the subreddit from now on.
Most of the other offerings from The Silph Road have already been taken offline by the developers. The content on their website is no longer accessible. However, a few services will still be available to you in the coming days and weeks.
For example, the content related to “The Silph Arena” around PvP battles will remain active until the end of the season. And the “Traveler’s Card” can still be used until August 1, 2023. According to dronpes, however, that will be the end of it, and with the exception of the subreddit and the Discord channel, all other content will then go into retirement.
The Silph Road thanks the community
At the end of their statement, the team from The Silph Road also wants to thank the community and their supporters. Dronpes reflects on the past years and shares some of the milestones achieved.
Accordingly, their homepage has been visited more than 206,560,000 times since 2016, their subreddit has 821,308 subscribers, and over 29,000 volunteers signed up for a live event. He writes:
These numbers are astonishing to me. Especially considering that Silph had no “business model”, did not charge in-app purchases or fees for any services, and was a purely grassroots movement. (How many organizations can claim that at any point in their history, they managed to gather 29,000 volunteers for a live event? :D)
dronpes via reddit.com
For me, the Silph Road has set the bar extraordinarily high for online gaming communities in many ways. I thank you all for joining us and helping to make the Silph Road what it has become. Together, we have written this place into Pokémon history. We hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did. Now it’s time to look for our next adventure. We’ll see you on the road!
Trainers are sad: It was a great journey
The news about the end of the largest community for Pokémon GO brings much sadness among the trainers. For most, The Silph Road has been a central resource and a reliable source in recent years.
It is therefore not surprising that the statement on Reddit has already received more than 9,200 upvotes and over 1,100 comments (as of 15.05.2023 10:30 AM). In these, trainers express their gratitude for the great work (via reddit.com):
- ToRepelGhosts: “It’s hard to say what to say. The Silph Road has been an indispensable support for so many of us over the last 7 years. It’s been a great journey. Thank you for everything! And good luck to you all in your future endeavors!”
- OUTheMovie: “Thank you for everything the Silph team has done. I can hardly imagine that I and our community would have reached where we are today without the tremendous efforts of The Silph Road and everyone on board. The commitment to statistics and analysis of the game has elevated the game for all to a level far beyond what any anecdotes could provide. You will all be dearly missed, and we will all be worse off without The Silph Road.”
- SketchyConcierge: “It really hurts to hear that. Thank you all!”
Niantic and content creators respond: In addition to the numerous reactions on Reddit, well-known content creators are also speaking out about the end of The Silph Road on social media, expressing their regret about this decision.
LeekDuck writes on Twitter: “Thank you for being a pillar of the community from the very beginning. Your tireless efforts for knowledge and building the community will forever be the foundation for Pokémon GO.”
And the developers of Pokémon GO also thank The Silph Road for their collaboration in a separate blog post:
In the past year, we had the pleasure of working with The Silph Road as part of the Community Ambassador Program. It was great to work with the team on this project, and it was incredible to watch the passionate members of The Silph Road build a truly amazing community hub. While we are sad that The Silph Road is closing its doors, we want to thank them for everything they have done for the Pokémon GO community over the last six years.
Niantic via pokemongolive.com
Are you also sad that The Silph Road is now closing its doors? Have their statistics and research helped you while playing in recent years? Or do you prefer to play straight ahead? Feel free to let us know here on MeinMMO in the comments and exchange ideas with other trainers about it.
By the way: Pokémon GO runs much smoother with 2 settings. We show you how to use them.
