AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez
A Pokémon trainer embraces a stuffed Charmander while he plays Pokemon Go.
A massive group of Pokémon Go players descended on the streets of San Francisco last night to try and catch 'em all, the Guardian reports.
It all started with a simple Facebook event - an invitation for a small group of friends to get together, walk around the city, and catch Pokémon.
"I made this event at midnight, invited my Facebook friends, and fell asleep," Sara Witsch, the event's creator, told Tech Crunch. "I woke up to 500 people going."
But by Wednesday afternoon, 9,000 people had pledged to attend the event on Facebook. And though there was no way to count the number of players who actually showed up, the size (and spirit) of the crowd was impressive.
AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez The excited crowd on Wednesday night.
The event was almost a complete bust: Mere hours before the scheduled 6 pm start time, the game's servers were down, preventing players from logging in.
"I was panicking," a player who drove 40 miles to attend the meetup told the Guardian. "I was like, I dressed cute for nothing."
Luckily, the servers went back up just in time for the group - many in Pokémon-themed costumes - to start their crawl through the city. Many local businesses took note of the event, offering discounts and specials to game users.
AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Two players walk the streets of San Francisco dressed as Pikachu.
Here's a video of the crowd on the hunt:
It's not 8000 people, but it's definitely a big turnout of Pokemon Go crawlers pic.twitter.com/TlktECUlBo
- Julia Carrie Wong (@juliacarriew) July 21, 2016