‘Pokemon Go-Induced’ Stampede In Taiwan Involved Thousands, No Casualties

Ever since “Pokemon Go” hit the Asian market, the game has surpassed records, as it was expected to. Mirroring the app’s explosive popularity when it was released in the U.S., a crowd of thousands of Taiwanese trainers stampeded to catch a “Snorlax” located down a busy street. Even though the number of American players is down significantly, it would seem that Niantic Labs still has a fervent fan base in other countries.

“Pokemon Go” is fast losing players in the U.S., Tech Times reports, but the fever is still riding high in other places, where the app was just released. The video that caught the stampede in Taiwan, where thousands of people invaded traffic just to catch a “Snorlax” is the biggest proof of this.

One of the reasons as to why the Pokemon garnered such fervor from trainers is the fact that it is indeed one of the rarer critters in the game. Even with the classic, handheld titles, trainers could only ever catch one or two of them. Then there’s the fact that they also have high defense and relatively strong attacks.

The video first went live on Facebook, Times reports, but was then ported over to YouTube. The video clearly depicts a mob of players that seemingly number in the thousands, all of whom were running into traffic and were risking getting trampled by the crowd of overeager players.

Apparently, this is not the first time that such a huge crowd has invaded public streets and busy parts of Taiwanese cities. In fact, the trend has become such a menace since the release of “Pokemon Go” that police and the civil defense brigade were brought in to deal with the situation.

Taiwan is not the only place that the app’s users have been causing trouble in Asia either. Countries like Thailand and Cambodia have seen a spike in accidents caused by pedestrians and motorists playing the game that they have had to threaten jail time more than once.