Crowd at the entrance and Pokemon Center pop-up at the 2022 Pokemon World Championships in London — Photo: Captain Galaxy, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Games

Pokémon Trading Card Game

A two-player card game built on the Pokémon video games, and the most collected trading card game by a wide margin. The current era of sets is branded Mega Evolution.

Publisher	The Pokémon Company
Launched	1996 — Japan; English cards followed in the US in 1999.
Status	Active, in print
Shops in our directory that mention it	87 shops

How popular is Pokémon right now?

65% of all activity tracked by the Collectr app (sales, scans and portfolio adds), down from 81% in 2021. (Collectr, State of the Hobby 2026 mid-year report)
No. 2 trading card game on TCGplayer by sales value in Q3 2026 (Pokémon Japan was No. 8 as a separate category). (TCGplayer, Best-Selling Trading Card Games, Q3 2026)

Collectr measures activity inside its collection-tracking app; TCGplayer ranks games by sales value on its US marketplace. Neither covers every sale, so treat both as indicators, not market share.

Record sales

Card photos: Guinness World Records; Sports Illustrated; WSB-TV. All credits

The full ranking of the most valuable Pokémon cards

Sealed vintage Pokemon booster packs in a dealer case at Collect-A-Con 2026 — Sealed 1999-era booster packs in a dealer's case at Collect-A-Con, May 2026. Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0

Pokemon Trading Card Game blister packs and tins hanging on a retail peg wall — Blister packs and tins on a retail peg wall, where most new product is sold. Photo: Kichigai Mentat, CC BY-SA 2.0

Upcoming Pokémon releases

No upcoming dated releases that we could source yet.

No English set after Delta Reign had been announced on pokemon.com as of late September 2026.

Recent Pokémon releases

Released	Product	Type
Nov 6, 2026	Mega Evolution—Delta Reign	Expansion
Sep 16, 2026	30th Celebration	Special set
Jul 17, 2026	Mega Evolution—Pitch Black	Expansion

All games on one calendar: release calendar.

Where to buy Pokémon

Local card shops get new Pokémon product on release day and many run events around it. Find one in the card shop directory (US, Canada, UK), or meet dealers at an upcoming card show. Big-box retailers restock on their own schedules and often set purchase limits; our restock explainer and line tracker cover how that works.

Other games: One Piece · Magic · Lorcana · Yu-Gi-Oh! · Riftbound · Gundam · Sports cards

Sources

Every link below was checked on November 12, 2026. If something here is out of date, email [email protected].