Pokémon Sun and Moon players fail second global event

Last month, Pokémon Sun and Moon players failed the game's first global event by a large margin.

Today, developer Game Freak broke the news that players have now also failed Sun and Moon's second global event. Meowth, that's right.

The damning news can now be seen in-game, where participants can collect a commiseration prize of a few hundred Festival Coins. Winning the event would have earned everyone a couple of thousand Festival Coins instead (thanks, Serebii).

So, what went wrong? It's a little embarrassing, really - especially as Game Freak said it would make this second event easier to avoid two defeats in a row.

The first event tasked players with catching 100m wild Pokémon worldwide. Players only managed 16m.

This second trial asked Pokémon fans to collect just 1m creatures, albeit using the game's Island Scan mechanic. Players only managed 661k.

Island Scan is far more fiddly than simply catching Pokémon, but the low number needed to succeed previously seemed plausible. The feature requires you to scan QR codes in order to unlock it, but then grants you the chance at finding an ultra-rare creature.

It remains to be seen what Nintendo and Game Freak will do next to avoid Pokémon fans failing three events in a row.

Eurogamer has a full explanation of Pokémon Sun and Moon Island Scanning in its guide section, along with everything else you could wish to know about the games.