One monster caught the hearts of Pokémon GO fans during the recent Water Festival event. Over half a billion of this Pokémon found a new home in players' pockets.

Water Festival Gave This Pokemon A Popularity Surge

The recent event made it easier for fans to catch water Pokémon as an abundance of them had a higher spawn rating. Players had the option to find monsters like Squirtle, Totodile and their respective evolutions. However, one Pokémon was caught over half a billion times despite its bland moves.

According to Polygon, the game's official Twitter account revealed the there was a total of 589 million Magikarp caught during the week-long festival. Since the said monster was also a water type, there was an increased spawn rate for this Pokémon as well in the area. However, one major incentive towards its capture was the fact that some of these Magikarp could actually be shiny.

If players managed to evolve the seemingly useless monster, they would end up with a powerful Red Gyarados, which made an appearance in Gen 2. With this in mind, it gave players all the reason they needed to fill their phone with the familiar fish. Luckily, players also get to keep their shiny prize even after the event.

Possible Pokémon GO Events To Do The Same?

In spite of the revealed numbers, VG247 reports that the official Twitter account failed to share the catch rates of the other monsters. With this in mind, the recent event gave justice to a usually overlooked Pokémon by adding some form of unique factor. Niantic could do something like this in the near future for other events that would give more spotlight to the less popular Pokémon.

However, the company has yet to reveal any further details regarding future updates. For now, fans will just have to wait for further updates. Pokémon GO is available for free on the iOS App Store and Google Play.