What this is
Who else keeps money from Pokémon spending in the year to February 2026: an estimated ¥2.08–2.89 trillion goes to shops, licensees and partners, 77–79% of it on Western licensed merchandise.
How it’s built
- Shops and distributors keep ¥205–358bn of card spending at list price; licensees and retailers keep ¥1,645–2,219bn of Western merchandise.
- Pokémon GO: app stores ¥77.5–88.8bn, Scopely ¥50.0–55.6bn. TCG Pocket: DeNA ¥32.5–37.8bn. Nintendo keeps ¥37.8–79.0bn of overseas game sales; console shops ¥35–52bn.
- The lows add to ¥2,083bn, the highs to ¥2,890bn.
What we assumed
- The merchandise line is License Global's self-reported retail estimate less an assumed industry royalty.It is not an observed figure, and it dominates the total.
Sanity check
TV and film partners are left out (TV Tokyo at most ¥6.8bn, ShoPro's profit ¥2.4bn); they would not change the picture.
Where it comes from
Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes:
- EstimateHow much of Pokémon card retail spending goes to shops and distributors rather than The Pokémon Company, year to February 2026¥205–358bn
- EstimateLicensed retail split TPC royalty against licensees against retailers, 2025 LG ↔ TPC year to February 2026
- EstimateWhere Pokémon GO's app-store spending went in the year to February 2026, and the size of TPC's mobile line with GO counted once
- EstimateDeNA’s estimated share of player spending on Pokémon TCG Pocket
- FiledRevenue DeNA, the developer of Pokémon TCG Pocket, booked from The Pokémon Company in the year to March 2026¥31.1bn
- EstimateNintendo overseas Pokémon software revenue, Nintendo year to March 2026 (≈ TPC year to February 2026)¥69.9bn
Show the working
- Card channel at list: ¥205–358bn
- Licensees and retailers on western merch ¥ billion residual: 1,645 to 2,219
- App stores on Q35 GO: ¥77.5–88.8bn
- DeNA TPC year at tau band: ¥32.5–37.8bn
- DeNA filed year to March 2026 anchor: ¥31.1bn
- Scopely 50pct of app store GO: ¥50–55.6bn
- Card channel (1 − s) × list across s 0.35–0.59
- Merch = LG retail − assumed royalty at the industry yield, TCG-IN 1,644.9 to TCG-OUT 2,218.8 : a residual
Where it’s used
Related figures
Built from this one