What this is
How fast Pokémon cards were made from 2021 to 2026 compared with 2015 to 2020: about 10.2–10.4 billion a year against 1.8 billion, roughly 5.7 times.
How it’s built
- From March 2021 to March 2026 the running total rose about 50.8–51.9bn, or 10.2–10.4bn a year.
- From March 2015 to March 2020 it rose 8.9bn, or 1.8bn a year. The last five years are about 60% of all Pokémon cards ever made.
What we assumed
- Cards shipped (before 2021) and produced (after) can be compared.They are different measures, so the research calls the 5.7 times indicative.
- The March 2026 total is under 86 billion.The company gives 'over 85 billion'; the upper end assumes rounding to the whole billion. The lower end of 10.2bn a year holds regardless.
Sanity check
Even allowing for the change in measure, the scale-up is too large to be an artefact of labelling.
Where it comes from
Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes.
Show the working
- Mar2021 to Mar2026 bn: 50.8 to 51.9
- Per year bn: 10.2 to 10.4
- Share of all cards ever: 0.591 to 0.611
- Mar2015 to Mar2020 per year bn shipped: 1.78
- Multiple: 5.7
- (85.0-34.2, 86.0-34.1) = 50.8-51.9
- /5 = 10.16-10.38
- share = 50.8/86 = 0.591 to 51.9/85 = 0.611. (30.4-21.5)/5 = 1.78
- 10.18/1.78 = 5.7
- Basis differs …