Catching Shiny Pokémon is one of the most exciting aspects of Pokémon GO. In-game events such as Community Day and Raid Weekends encourage players to log on with increased chances of encountering these rare Pokémon. However, Pokémon GO's Spotlight Hour events don't offer this same Shiny odds perk.
Spotlight Hour is a weekly event introduced in early 2020, along with Mystery Bonus Hour, to give players more to do. The former increased spawns of a a given Pokémon for one hour, while the latter gave trainers a chance to earn bonuses like double XP or Stardust. Eventually, the two were combined into the current-day Spotlight Hour event. Many fans assume Pokémon GO's Spotlight Hours boost Shiny rates because other events do, but this isn't actually the case.
Niantic has confirmed in its blog posts that certain Pokémon GO events, like Community Day, do increase the chances of encountering Shiny Pokémon, which it has never explicitly stated about Spotlight Hours. The developer does have a penchant for not fully detailing how certain features work, though, which is why Pokémon GO community sites like The Silph Road collect data on the game to get a better idea.
Pokémon GO Spotlight Hour Shiny Odds Explained
According to The Silph Road, the base Shiny rate for any given Pokémon is approximately 1 in 500. Community Day and other events boost the rate to approximately 1 in 25. Since the introduction of Spotlight Hours more than a year ago, no data has suggested Shiny rates are higher than normal during the event.
Some Pokémon do appear to have "permaboosted" Shiny odds for unexplained reasons, which could be where the misconception of Spotlight Hour-boosted Shiny odds comes from. For example, Sneasel is one of these permaboosted Pokémon. If it receives a Spotlight Hour, trainers will likely encounter a Shiny faster than if it was a non-permaboosted Pokémon, like Jigglypuff. There have also been nearly 70 different Spotlight Hours, and more than 10 of them featured Pokémon that didn't even have a Shiny version available to catch in-game.
The odds of finding a Shiny Pokémon during Spotlight Hour do increase, in a way, because of the sheer number of spawns. With so many Pokémon around, players have tons of chances to find a Shiny, even if the statistical odds on each click are the same. Unfortunately for Shiny Hunters, Spotlight Hour is more time-consuming than other Pokémon GO events, but there's always a chance that one tap will lead to a rare find.
Source: The Silph Road