What this is
How many Pokémon cards were made in the year to March 2026: about 10 billion, somewhere between 9 and 11 billion.
How it’s built
- The company's running total was 'over 75 billion' at March 2025 and 'over 85 billion' at March 2026.
- The difference is 10bn. Because each total may be up to a billion higher than stated, the year could be 9–11bn.
What we assumed
- Both totals are rounded down to the whole billion.Earlier totals were given to 0.1bn; these two are round numbers, so the research takes the cautious reading that they are whole-billion floors.
Sanity check
The range is wide enough that we cannot tell whether printing rose or fell from the year before; it could be anywhere from 20% down to 9% up. Press reports of 'roughly 10 billion' are the same subtraction.
Where it comes from
Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes:
- ReportedCard game cards annual, year to March 2026 (Apr 2025-Mar 2026)
- EstimateCards produced as reported by press (subtraction), year to March 2026, Mar 2025-Mar 202610 billion cards (approx.)
Show the working
- Selected band bn: 9 to 11
- Point bn: 10
- Over year to March 2025 ratio, year to March 2026: 0.804 to 1.09
- Against year to March 2025, year to March 2026: -19.6 to 8.9%
- Against year to March 2024, year to March 2026: -25 to -6.8%
- Sign year to March 2026 against year to March 2025: undetermined
- V25 in [75,76), V26 in [85,86) -> FY3/26 in (9.0, 11.0)
- point 85-75 = 10.0 is press subtraction
- Correlated ratio FY3/26/FY3/25: min (85-76)/(76-64.8)
Where it’s used
Related figures
Built from this one
- EstimatePokémon cards graded in 2025 as a share of cards printed in the year to March 20260.15–0.18%
- EstimatePer year perimeter availability, 2014–year to February 2027
- EstimatePrint per JP plus EN set cadence index, print year to March 2022-print year to March 2026 (Apr-Mar print years)
- ReportedWorld card production per print year around rotations, year to March 2022+ basis, print year to March 2022-print year to March 2026