Pokémon Go's Sky Has Turned Purple for Some People, but Users Want to Know Why

If you've opened Pokémon Go at any point in the last few months and happened to notice that the sky inside the app has turned purple, you're not alone. The change was an intentional one made by the app's developers, but it's also one that many people are confused by.

If you've noticed that your sky is purple, but you aren't exactly sure what that's supposed to mean, we've got you covered. Here's what we know about why Pokémon Go is purple.

The sky in Pokémon Go turns purple as part of the Space-Time anomaly mechanic in the Pokémon Go Tour: Sinnoh – Global event. Each day during the event, the sky turns purple to correspond with the active habitat hours. The feature was initially set up to run in two habitats, the Ancient Grove and Geothermal Lagoon, and it allows you to find Pokémon from the Hisui region that will be available to catch.

This mirrors a long-running effect from Pokémon games in which certain Pokémon can only be caught at specific times of the day or in specific locations. The purple sky just adds to the overall effect, making the whole thing cooler.

If you've noticed that the sky is purple in the game, then, you should be on the lookout for all the shinies and other unique Pokémon that you can only catch during these hours.

Although its user base is not as broad during the first heady summer after the game was released in 2016, Pokémon Go has managed to maintain an active user base in part through events like the one that turns the sky purple inside of the game.

Since the game's initial release, it has obviously improved both its graphics and its gameplay, and has also introduced tons of new regions and Pokémon that you can catch.

Pokémon has been an ongoing Nintendo franchise for 30 years, and in that time, the games and the lore around them has continued to evolve and transform. While it's undeniably a corner of gaming culture that plenty of people know nothing about, there are also people who are quite obsessive about the games, making sure that they purchase each successive one in order to test it out.

As the games and consoles have come and gone over the last decade, though, Pokémon Go has remained, and has encouraged the people who already love Pokémon to explore the world around them and walk for miles at a time in order to find a unique Pokémon worth grabbing.

If you're the kind of Pokémon Go player who isn't necessarily obsessed with the rest of the Pokémon universe, you might find yourself occasionally mystified by what goes on in the mobile game. Purple sky or not, though, you're likely aware that the singular goal of the game is to catch as many Pokémon as possible.