How fast competitive Pokémon play has grown since 2016

What this is

How fast competitive Pokémon play has grown since 2016: World Championships competitors up about 1.5–1.7 times by 2025 and 1.6–1.8 times by 2026, set beside how fast card printing and company revenue grew.

How it’s built

Worlds competitors: about 1,500–1,700 in 2016 to 2,500 in 2025 (1.5–1.7 times) and 2,700 in 2026 (1.6–1.8 times).
Other events: Japan Championships players up 2.4 times since 2018; Europe card-game Internationals up 2.2–2.6 times since 2023.
Worlds attendance against about 4,000 in 2016: 3.3 times in 2024, 6–7.5 times in 2025, 12.5 times in 2026.
Compare: cards printed rose about 4.8 times from the year to March 2018 to the year to March 2026; group revenue about 6–8 times since 2017.

What we assumed

The 2016 base was 1,500–1,700 competitors and about 4,000 attendees.Contemporary press and a later executive recollection disagree, so a range is used.
Card and video-game entrants alone give a like-for-like comparison with 2016.2016 included a different game, and Pokémon GO and UNITE were added later; this row (1.2–1.4 times) is a floor.
Europe’s 2023 count covers adults only or all ages.The source does not say, so the multiple is shown as 2.2–2.6.

Sanity check

The comparison sets head counts against card volume and money, which are different units. The 2026 attendance includes visitors to the Pokémon XP show, so it overstates growth in players.

Where it comes from

Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes.

Show the working

Worlds card game plus VGC entrants 2025 against all 2016 times: 1.2 to 1.36
EUIC card game 2023 to 2025 times: 2.2 to 2.6
NAIC VGC Masters 2023 to 2025 times: 1.45

2,500/1,700 = 1.47
2,500/1,500 = 1.67
2,700/1,700 = 1.59
2,700/1,500 = 1.80
(1,425 + 608)/1,700 = 1.20, /1,500 = 1.36
4,400/1,800 = 2.44
4,400/2,900 = 1.52
4,400/3,800 = 1.16
3,361/1,525 = 2.20
3,968/1,525 = 2.60

Where it’s used

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