Pokémon Go’s 2024 Halloween event decked its map out with spooky fall decor. But only a day after the game’s update, the map reverted to its original setting, leaving many to wonder where the festivities went. It seems as though Niantic has an answer—and luckily, the change is only temporary.
Niantic revealed today in a Help Center post that Pokémon Go’s Halloween visuals, which decorated the environmental map with orange leaves and pumpkins, had been removed because of crashes. “This feature has been temporarily disabled while we investigate,” the developer wrote. “This should not otherwise impact gameplay and is a visual change only.”
It didn’t take long for players to notice the decorations’ absence. “Did the Halloween Grinch just cancel Halloween or something?” one player asked on a Pokémon Go subreddit. Others shared memes making light of the situation, but almost all agreed on one thing: although small, these changes are much appreciated and most players can’t wait for the spooky map to make its return.
Despite the map being mostly an aesthetic change, it seems to have had bigger accessibility implications for a certain subset of players. One colorblind player on the game’s subreddits posted yesterday how the new Halloween theme allowed them to see when a Poké Stop was spinnable again, saying it was the “best thing ever” for those visually impaired folks playing the mobile game. “Best feature ever, no idea why Niantic can’t put those colors as a setting for colorblind people,” the Reddit user wrote. “Soo easy to do something soo massive in name of accessibility.”
Other aspects of the event—like the Spiritomb Challenge tasks, special costumed species spawns, and the Morpeko Onesie Premium Timed Research Tasks—are still available for players to enjoy. These festivities went live alongside the 2024 Pokémon Go Halloween – Part One event on Oct. 22 and will continue to be available until Oct. 28 at 10am local time. The second half of the event will then kick off immediately after, debuting new costumed species, Max Battles, and more until Nov. 3.
Based on Niantic’s response in the Help Center today, we expect the Halloween-themed map to make its return soon so everyone can get in the spooky spirit while they’re hunting for their favorite Ghost-type species.
For more information about Pokémon Go’s 2024 Halloween event and the full rewards list, visit the game’s event page.
Update Oct. 23 12:18pm CT: Niantic appears to have re-added the Halloween map to Pokémon Go, hopefully free of any technical ghouls that were previously stalking around.
