What this is
Among US adults, how many bought Pokémon cards for themselves and how many of those play the game: about 3 collectors who don’t play for every 1 who does.
How it’s built
- Circana, a market research firm, found via a survey reported by Axios that 19% of US adults bought Pokémon cards for themselves (September 2024 to March 2025), and that 25% of them play.
- So about 4.75% of adults are buyers who play, and 14.25% buyers who don’t: a ratio of 3 to 1.
What we assumed
- The survey’s two shares can be multiplied as reported.Both come from the same survey; the research has only the press summary, not the questionnaire.
- The survey represents US adults.Circana is an established research firm, but sample and method are not given in the summary.
Sanity check
Covers adults buying for themselves only, not children or gift buyers. A 19% buying rate among all US adults is high and worth reading with the question wording in mind.
Where it comes from
Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes.
Show the working
- Adults bought for self share: 0.19
- Of whom play: 0.25
- Adult buyer players share of adults: 0.048
- Adult buyer non players share of adults: 0.143
- Non players per player: 3
- 0.19 × 0.25 = 0.0475
- 0.19 × 0.75 = 0.1425
- 0.1425/0.0475 = 3.0