"PokeStops are vanishing": Pokemon GO player complains about disappearing feature

Playing Pokemon GO in rural areas has always been difficult, according to the community. However, following a recent update, Niantic seems to be making the game even harder for those who do not live in a large city. This has been spotlighted on the subreddit for the game by u/Lechonkje.

Players across the globe have been slowly realizing that Niantic has been deleting Pokestops from the map, resulting in much fewer free items for players. This has led to many jumping to the conclusion that Niantic is deleting Pokestops to incentivize players to purchase items with microtransactions. But is there more to this story?

A screenshot from the Reddit thread

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Reddit reacts to Niantic deleting Pokestops in Pokemon GO

A screenshot from the Reddit thread

For those who may not know, Pokestops are various landmarks around Pokemon GO's maps marked by real-world buildings and landmarks like businesses and art statues. These places feature a disk that players can spin for a couple of free items like Potions or Poke Balls. However, these locations also serve an additional purpose.

Not every landmark or business is destined to become a Pokestop. These areas are carefully selected to maximize the number of players who would encounter these stops. These locations and player interactions with them are kept track of, resulting in the collection of valuable location data that Niantic can then sell to advertisers.

A screenshot from the Reddit thread

The deletion of many Pokestops is a key indicator that these stops and the data collected from them were deemed as "non-profitable" by Niantic, and thus removed in favor of moving the Pokestop to a more populated location. Littering an area with Pokestops would obviously be very good for players, but it would not serve Niantic very well, especially in rural areas where player numbers are incredibly small.

While incredibly unfortunate for these players in rural areas, Niantic simply does not keep them in consideration when making these decisions, as those who play the game in populated, profitable urban locations are way more likely to come back. Rural players who relocate to these areas to play Pokemon GO only contribute to the cycle.

A screenshot from the Reddit thread

Another outlook to consider is that Pokemon GO did see a rise in bots who existed for the sole purpose of spamming Pokestop votes, artificially inflating the amount of Pokestops available in the game. Niantic suddenly removing these less populated Pokestops could be a consequence of this series of events.

This wave of bot accounts has also led to Niantic taking a closer look at Pokestop votes. Some players in the thread have conveyed their experiences with the game's voting system, claiming that Niantic did in fact cater to their votes, but only after a considerably long amount of time had passed.

Overall, the deletion of many Pokestops across Pokemon GO is something to be expected after the sudden influx of these locations. Many rural players may not like it, but Niantic simply does not consider the lower density of rural trainers who play the game when the money lies in the hardcore playerbase in urban communities.