Pokemon Company announced that it had made 85 billion Pokemon TCG cards from March 2026. First sets Pokemon TCG were released in Japan in 1996.
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to find Pokemon TCG issue sets as scalpers make it increasingly difficult for consumers to purchase their desired card sets from retailers. The Pokemon Company has greatly increased the production of their highly collectible cards, but it seems that no matter how many cards are produced, they will inevitably sell out worldwide, leaving thousands of disappointed fans.
Pokemon has surpassed 85 billion trading cards produced
Like it's 2026 PokemonTo mark its 30th anniversary, The Pokemon Company International has released a number of production and sales numbers for its video games and trading card games. This includes the fact that the company has shipped over 515 million Pokémon video games and produced 85 billion trading cards since the game's inception. To put this into perspective, Joe Merrick, owner of Serebia, one of the most popular Pokemon wikis, claims that nearly 12% of all Pokemon business cards ever produced were printed in the last financial year. This means that between April 2025 and March 2026, roughly 10 billion cards were produced.
The Pokemon Company has also released a number of other statistics regarding the trading card game. From this year Pokemon TCG cards are available in 16 languages in over 90 countries. The most popular languages are English and Japanese; the latter due to the availability of cards in Pokemon's home country of Japan much earlier than their foreign counterparts. Not only do many TCG fans import cards from Japan so they can get their hands on them as soon as possible, but some even buy hundreds of dollars worth of cards online before the set is even released.
Despite The Pokemon Company's best efforts to increase production and limit the number of TCG sets anyone can buy, they are still looking for ways to make sure customers don't go home disappointed on release day. In Japan, Pokémon is exploring a government ID requirement to purchase TCG cards, although the idea is only a concept and has not been tested at the time of writing. Independent retailers have been trying to curb scalping for years, with one chain in Japan asking potential customers to Pokemon test if they are really fans of the franchise before they buy.
WITH Pokemon TCG'Due to its massive popularity, it's likely that the 10 billion card milestone will be surpassed again within the next 12 months as card production still seemingly cannot keep up with player demand. Unlike many other collectible card games, Pokemon fans buy TCG sets even though they don't play the board game in person because of the beautiful artwork and detailed designs of their favorite critters.
