5 Pokemon GO highlights from June 2023

Pokemon GO is pushing ahead into the summer, and June has given way to July. Niantic surely has plenty of events in store for this month, but it's worth looking back at some of the most impactful moments last month as well. June featured multiple Pokemon debuts, some great announcements, and entertaining events for the mobile title.

Now that June 2023 has come to a close in Pokemon GO, it isn't a bad time to examine the month's peaks before July's events and debuts kick off in earnest.

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5 biggest moments for Pokemon GO in June 2023

1) The Solstice Horizons event

From June 16-25, 2023, Pokemon GO players were met with the Soltice Horizons event, which focused on capturing Pocket Monsters based on the time of day. Although catching creatures was one aspect of the event, it also saw the debut of shiny Fomantis for the first time.

If that wasn't enough, the Alolan Legendary Pokemon Cosmog returned to the limelight. For the first time since the end of the Season of Light, trainers could catch Cosmog and accrue candies for it, ultimately allowing players to evolve it into Cosmoem and then the Day/Night-oriented Solgaleo and Lunala.

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2) The Lake Guardians' raid event

The Sinnoh Lake Guardians Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit remain some of the most elusive creatures in Pokemon GO. Despite being detectable in the wild, these region-locked species are tough to find. Even worse, there were issues with their shiny appearance rates when they were brought to the raid rotation in early June.

To make up for it, Niantic implemented a raid event for the trio of Legendary Pokemon from June 1-5, 2023. During this time, trainers could raid the three creatures in 5-star raids. Unfortunately, the three Pocket Monsters were still region-locked, but players at least received a boost to the daily limit of remote raids up to 15 per day.

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3) Axew's Community Day

Much like the Lake Guardian trio, Axew is one of Pokemon GO's most elusive creatures. Obtaining it during normal gameplay is quite difficult, which is what made its June 10 Community Day even more vital. This single event presented players with more opportunities to catch Axew than just about any point of the year.

As an added bonus, Pokemon GO players who evolved Axew all the way to Haxorus acquired the latter creature with the new move Breaking Swipe. This move has proved to improve Haxorus' viability in both PvE and PvP battles.

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4) Mega Sableye and Turtonator in the Dark Flames event

Although the Dark Flames event technically concluded on July 2, 2023, it remained one of the highlights of June for its new introductions in Pokemon GO. The Fire/Dragon-type creature Turtonator made its first appearance in the game as a raid boss, and Sableye's Mega Evolution also arrived in the mobile title for the first time.

Additionally, trainers could battle Heatran as a 5-star raid boss and capture it with the new move Magma Storm. All things considered, Dark Flames was definitely one of the most content-packed events this year.

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5) The announcement of Mega Rayquaza

Mega Evolutions figured into June's announcements in Pokemon GO quite a bit, but the biggest confirmation is one that has been awaited for years. After plenty of speculation surrounding GO Fest 2023, many trainers deduced that Rayquaza would finally receive its Mega Evolution during the event.

Fortunately, Niantic confirmed the theories and stated on June 21 that Mega Rayquaza would arrive during 2023's GO Fest. Granted, trainers outside of the in-person GO Fests won't get a chance to catch Mega Rayquaza until they can raid it on August 27, 2023, but having advanced notice is still helpful.

Waiting may not be ideal, but learning of Mega Rayquaza's announcement has given trainers multiple months to prepare to acquire its Mega Energy for their own uses.