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After playing the game for a little while, I've noticed that Pokestops are chosen seemingly at random locations on the map. A few of them are even in inaccessible places; an abandoned church building, inside of an airforce base, etc. How are these locations chosen as Pokestops?

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    My guess is that Niantic has for the most part used the portal database build by the Ingress community and for some of them they've used their own Fieldtrip application's database.
    – Montag451
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 13:22
  • I'm retracting my VTC as while this may have an element of game design, it seems to be more about asking how the mechanic itself works.
    – two bugs
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 13:46
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    VTO, The question would be about Design and Development had it asked why or how the developers chose to implement the Pokestop feature. Asking what requirements are needed for a landmark to be chosen as a Pokestop is just as valid as How does incense work? or How do gyms work?
    – Aux
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 19:10

1 Answer 1

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Pokémon GO's database is based on Niantic's portal database for Ingress, which is currently not accepting new requests for more locations while they review the process.

If you want to see every current PokéStop, download and register for Ingress, then go to https://www.ingress.com/intel

There are some plugins you can download to facilitate the discovery of Stops and Gyms based on that information (and even help updating the ones that still aren't registered as either).

Keep in mind that, while every PokéStop and Gym are based on Ingress Portals, not every Portal will be a PokéStop or Gym.

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    Not all locations in Ingress is converted over to Pokémon Go, the once I have seen missing is where a lot of points are close together in Ingress, guessing there is a minimum distance between multiple PokéStops
    – Blem
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 13:35
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    People might wonder how that database was created so as an addition to the answer: Portals for Ingress were created by the players themselves. They were asked to submit portals at locations that are significant landmarks, mostly cultural or artistic things. Niantic then reviewed these submissions and if they agreed that it was significant enough it became a portal. Due to being unable to review the increasing amount of submissions and I think also because there are enough portals already Niantic disabled the portal submission ability at some point
    – Ivo
    Commented Jul 9, 2016 at 22:32
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    Yet, in the particular small tourist city where I live(population 15,000) there are no pokestops.. even our major tourist attraction.. I really think their locations need a second or even third look. Not that anyone here can help.. just venting.
    – DoubleDouble
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 0:15
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    Looks like they've added a form to request PokeStops and gyms support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com/hc/en-us/requests/…
    – Vian Esterhuizen
    Commented Jul 14, 2016 at 15:34
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    @VianEsterhuizen Are you sure that's not a form for reporting issues with PokéStops (e.g. dangerous locations)? Another page about reporting issues with PokéStops or Gyms on Niantic's website says quite clearly "we are currently not accepting submissions for new PokéStops or Gyms."
    – Thunderforge
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 4:08

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