Pokémon Go servers down intermittently following Canadian release

Oh, Canada. Pokémon Go does not stand on guard for thee.

The online servers for mobile megahit Pokémon Go are once again having serious issues, and it’s coming as the country of Canada is getting the chance to download the app from the official App Store and Google Play markets for the first time today. After more than a week of availability in the United States, Canadians are finally able to go out and catch Beartic, Sawsbuck, and other pocket monsters you would associate with the Great White North. Pokémon Go is one of the world’s most popular apps, and it is currently making millions of dollars every day in the $36.9 billion mobile gaming market. Developer Niantic is generating that cash despite regular server troubles that often keep players from engaging with the GPS-powered location-based games creature-catching mechanics.

Fans on social media are complaining about the most recent outage, which is only hitting some people intermittently. These connection problems can keep the game from loading, but they can also cause Pokémon Go to freeze up during gameplay.

Developer Niantic has previously acknowledged the server troubles, and it says it working on improving the service.

Thank you for your patience. We have been working to fix the server issues. We will continue rolling out #PokemonGO to new countries soon.

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) July 8, 2016

For now, however, the developer is only slowly rolling out its Pokémon-catching game to markets around the world. For the first week, Pokémon Go was only in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. It has since launched in more than a dozen other markets in Europe, South America, and Asia.

But even with Niantic holding back the official release, many people are downloading the app from alternative sources primarily for Android. As of last week, nearly 7 percent of Canadian smartphones running the Google mobile operating system already had Pokémon Go installed despite not having the option to get it directly from Google Play. Similar levels of installs are true for countries around the world that are still waiting on the official release, and that is likely having a large effect on the game’s servers.