The Pokémon Company manufactured more than 10 billion Pokémon trading cards last year alone, and has now produced a staggering total of 85 billion cards to date.
Just last year’s number of cards represents a higher figure than the number of people on the planet. But it’s also especially shocking considering the supply issues still faced by Pokémon cards — that are still hard to find despite that huge production volume.
New card releases have constantly been scuppered by scalping, in-store squabbles and constant sell-outs. The huge popularity of Pokémon cards (and in particular the rarer varieties) has also led to a never-ending spate of thefts, with dozens of instances where trading card stores were broken into reported across the U.S. alone.
The latest Pokémon card production figures come from a freshly-updated page on The Pokémon Company’s website, which lists the franchise’s various sales milestones (as of the end of March 2026).
In the world of Pokémon video games, more than 515 million “Pokémon-related software” units have been shipped to date, with 16 million shipped in the last year alone. This will likely include the 4 million copies of Pokémon Pokopia sold on Nintendo Switch since the game’s debut in early March. Last year also saw continued strong sales for earlier games such as Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which has now hit 12 million copies across Switch and Switch 2.
Just yesterday, reports emerged of a Florida man who had been arrested after $12,000 of Pokémon cards were stolen in a heist that involved a battery-powered chainsaw. Last month, another desperate Pokémon fan was arrested in Pasadena, California, after hiding inside a closed Best Buy ahead of a Pokémon card drop. And back in January, staff and shoppers were held at gunpoint in a brazen raid at a card shop in Manhatten as $100,000 worth of stock was swiped.
Image credit: Martin Lelievre / AFP via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
