July 15, 2016, was eagerly awaited by many as the official release date of Pokémon GO, the latest “chapter” in the world’s most famous pocket monsters saga. But the game is much more than just a sequel: it introduces a decidedly innovative gaming mechanism compared to previous installments.

The game, which finally launched in Italy after being tested in several countries to check the servers’ response, is an app that can be downloaded for free from the App Store or Google Play, turning your smartphone into a window into a special… augmented reality. Pokémon GO is part of Niantic Labs’ “real-world games,” transforming the real world into a playing field where it “inserts” over 100 different species of Pokémon (for fans and nostalgics, all from the first series—but updates will come!).

In addition to customizing your avatar and various growth mechanisms within the game (evolutions, eggs, Gym teaming, Pokémon catching…), Nintendo is set to launch, by the end of July 2016, a portable device called Pokémon GO Plus. This device allows players to continue playing even without their smartphones by connecting to them via Bluetooth and interacting as a smart device with the user through LED lights and vibrations.

The game does have a predecessor: four years before the app for Nintendo’s pocket monsters, Niantic Labs had already experimented with the same formula with another title, Ingress. This game also used the city as a playing field, dividing users into two opposing factions and involving the capture of portals and the marking of real-world territories.

While the two apps have much in common (including the developers: much of Ingress’s data was incorporated into Pokémon GO), the popularity of the pocket monsters has led to over 15 million downloads of the Nintendo app within just a few weeks in the U.S. alone, and a staggering 21 million active users in recent days, compared to the peak of 7 million over just three years of Ingress.

This meteoric rise in numbers has not spared the markets: Bloomberg showed a shocking graph illustrating how Nintendo’s stock value has doubled—surpassing even that of Sony, the undisputed leader of the home console market—and seems set to keep growing.

Is this the beginning of the end for traditional home entertainment? The rise of smartphones has repeatedly undermined the popularity of offered titles and market innovations… time will tell!