The Pokemon Go phenomenon, explained by a millennial

Nintendo'snew mobile gamePokemonGois"everything" right now at least amongthosewho play it.

Fans of the app say it's everything they've ever wanted, everything they dreamed about as children, everything worthy of leaving the house for and everything good in the world. To them, it is literally everything.

To others, "everywhere" maybe a more appropriate word.

Confusion about Pokemon Gohas been rising worldwide as itsunprecedented growth makes more and moreheadlines.

Since the beginning of its global rollout on Wednesday,the free-to-playaugmented realitygame has been linkedtoinjuries, robberies, lost jobs,love connections, pleasfrom police,thediscovery of a dead body and a $7.5-billion US surge inNintendo's market value among other things.

It is, hands down, the fastest-growing mobile gaming phenomenon that this writer (and obsessive app downloader) has ever seen, surpassing Tinder in itsnumber ofdownloads on U.S. Android devices and threatening Twitter's number of daily active users within just days of its launch.

How did thishappen?And, more importantly,why?

Here are five of the main factors drivingPokemon Go's successbased on what users and analysts are saying, although, as we're already starting to see,there's more behind the appeal of this gamefor some.

1. It bringspeople together IRL

Video games have long had a bad rap for keeping kids inside. Smartphones, they say, are turning an entiregeneration into anti-socialzombies.

Pokemon Goturns this logic and its head, and then some.

Even in Canada, where the game has yet to "officially" launch, stories abound of playersrunning into eachother while huntingmonsters in the wild.

By using"lures" hot spots activated with incenseto attract more Pokemon creatures players are finding themselves surrounded not only by Pokemon, but new human friends too.

Unfortunately for people who livein places that have automaticallybeendesignated Pokemongyms, the same effect is being seen amongpeople looking to train their monsters for battle.

2. It's the first mainstream mobile appof its kind

Augmented realityappsaren't exactly new.Niantic, theGoogle-ownedcompany that developedPokemonGo, actuallyreleased an AR mobile game calledIngresstwo years ago. Some people are saying thatPokemonGois pretty much just a skin of that game,formatted for the mainstream market through the addition of an already popular media franchise.

They aren't wrong, butPokemonGois also exceptionalinthat it doesn't involve using special glasses or a VR headset to experience in full. The app simply taps into a user'ssmartphonecamerato show where monsters are hiding nearby in real time, everywhere they go, rightagainst the backdrop of their ownlives.

"Hololens, Project Tango,Intel'sRealSensecamera, and many other technologies are extraordinary tools of augmented reality that have struggled to explain their coolness,"writesGizmodo'sAlexCranz."But someJigglypuffsandPickachusjust gave us a way to understand the possibilities. Who could have guessed adorkygame for kids would one day be a watershed technology."

3. It's nostalgic

Don't get it twisted, this oneisn't about"the kids."

Rather, Pokemon Gofans appear largely to be men and women in their 20s and 30s people who were kids in the late '90s when thePokemon franchise firsthit North America.

Many of us would run home after school to watch theTV show and live vicariously through itsprotagonist,Ash Ketchum. We couldn't "catch 'em all" back then outside of the Pokemoncard and Nintendo games, but we could (and can still) sing the theme song by heart.

Now, we can pretty much do both and that's way more exciting than a Full House remake.

4. It might actually bemaking us healthier

Gamers are getting outbythe thousands tosearch for and battle their Pokemon, some of themlogging so many steps at a time that the appis being hailed asan inadvertentexercise tool.

The game is also reportedly lendingadditionalmental health benefits to some players.

"Tumblr users have said that the game has motivated them to get out of bed,"reports ATTN, "which can often be a struggle for thosesuffering from depression."

5. It's hilarious

A hugepart of the game's appeal, especially among thosewho aren'tlongtimePokemon fans, is the ability to participate in alarger cultural movement surrounding it.

This can be done by taking screenshots of pocket monsters in funny places and sharing them online. Much of what's rising to the top of Reddit's r/pokemon go subis laugh out loud hilarious, but even a quick scroll of the #PokemonGohashtag brings gold up on Twitter too.

Fans aren't wrong in that thisgamereally does seemto be everything to a lot of people right now and that in itself is onlypushing its popularityfurther leading businesses to tailor their marketing plans.

Ew.

Will thisleadthePokemon Gophenomenonto jump the shark quickly,like so many other great internet things? I suppose we'll find out if we everuse our phones for something other thancatching Pokemon again.