There is only one official number for how many Pokémon cards exist, a lifetime total that TPC updates once a year, and it has become harder to read. It counted cards shipped until 2020 and cards produced from 2021, and since 2025 it has been a round figure “or more”, most recently 85bn. So a single year’s print is known precisely for just three years, the last of them the record 11.9bn in the year to March 2024, and the two years since can only be put in ranges: 10.1–11.2bn and 9.0–11.0bn. Customs data is the nearest outside check. It covers every publisher’s cards, and it shows Japan’s card exports from March to August 2026 at 1.98 times the same months a year earlier.
One total, changed twice
The total sits on TPC’s “Pokémon in Figures” page and is updated once a year, as of March. In March 2020 it read 30.4bn cards shipped. A year later the same line read 34.1bn cards produced; the Japanese label changed between captures of the page taken in January and July 2021. A card can be made and still sit in a warehouse, so the 3.7bn between those two readings mixes the two counts and says only that the year’s production was at most 3.8bn.
The second change came with the March 2025 update. The decimal went, and the page said 75bn “or more”, then 85bn “or more” a year later. In the same update the count of countries and regions where cards are sold went from 93 to “90 or more”, so we read the card total the same way, as rounded down to the whole billion. Fig. 1 marks both changes on the series.
The card total switched from cards shipped to cards made in 2021, and lost its decimal in 2025
TPC’s lifetime total of Pokémon cards, billions, as of each March. The dashed line counts cards shipped and the solid line cards produced, from 2021. The last two points, from 2025, are round figures “or more”.
- To 2020: cards shipped
- 2021 to 2024: cards produced, to a tenth of a billion
- From 2025: cards produced, a round number “or more”
Show the numbers
| March | To 2020: cards shipped, bn cards | 2021 to 2024: cards produced, to a tenth of a billion, bn cards | From 2025: cards produced, a round number “or more”, bn cards | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | – | – | ||
| 2016 | no figure | – | – | |
| 2017 | – | – | ||
| 2018 | – | – | ||
| 2019 | – | – | ||
| 2020 | – | – | ||
| 2021 | – | – | ||
| 2022 | – | – | ||
| 2023 | – | – | ||
| 2024 | – | – | ||
| 2025 | – | – | ||
| 2026 | – | – |
To 2020: cards shipped. TPC’s page counted cards shipped until March 2020. The 2018 and 2019 readings come from press retrospectives of the page.
2021 to 2024: cards produced, to a tenth of a billion. From March 2021 the same line counts cards produced. Each reading is rounded down to the tenth of a billion.
From 2025: cards produced, a round number “or more”. The 2025 and 2026 readings are 75bn and 85bn “or more”, with no decimal. We read them as floors to the whole billion; that reading is our judgement.
Three exact years, then ranges
Subtract one March from the next and the print appears. On the production count the total read 43.2bn, 52.9bn and 64.8bn in March 2022, 2023 and 2024, which gives 9.1bn, 9.7bn and 11.9bn a year, each good to a tenth of a billion either way. For scale, shipments averaged 1.8bn a year in the five years to March 2020.
With round totals the subtraction gives ranges. The two years to March 2026 together averaged 10–16% below the record, however they split. Which of the two was larger cannot be told, because the latest year could be anywhere from 20% below the one before to 9% above it. The widely quoted 10.2bn for the year to March 2025 is the new round total minus the last decimal one, the bottom of the range, and no page of TPC’s that we have captured carries a yearly figure.
Yearly printing is exact for 2022 to 2024 and a range since, about 10 to 11 billion and then 9 to 11 billion
Pokémon cards a year, billions, years to March, by subtracting TPC’s lifetime totals. Bars to 2020 count cards shipped and are not comparable with the later ones.
Customs is the nearest outside measure, and exports have doubled
Japan records what leaves its ports. Exports of playing cards to all countries were ¥152.7bn from March to August 2026, the first half of TPC’s year, against ¥77.0bn a year earlier. Seven Asian markets took just over half of the increase, and shipments to them ran at 2.3 times the year before. The weight shipped rose by less, 1.44 times, so each kilogram left at a higher value. The customs code covers every publisher’s cards and only cards that leave Japan, so this measures the trade Pokémon sits in. It cannot be split by brand and says nothing about cards printed abroad.
Japan’s card exports have run about twice last year’s level since March
Japan’s monthly exports of playing cards to all countries, ¥ billion, 2025 against 2026 to September, from Japanese customs. The code covers every publisher’s card games together.
What it adds up to
TPC usually posts the new total by September. The next one covers the year to March 2027.