$2.05–3.87bn
a year of Pokémon cards in North America and Europe, valued at list price. A model built on vendor shelf data. TPCi keeps about half of that.
- $0.66–1.22bn what TPCi books on those cards, modelled
- $1,720.1m Magic’s filed revenue, worldwide
Ask a toy-store buyer which card game is bigger and the answer is not close. Circana, a retail-tracking vendor, counts $2.5bn of US Pokémon toy sales in 2025, up 87%, and most of that is cards. Magic: The Gathering’s owner, Hasbro, files $1,720.1m of Magic revenue for the same year, worldwide. But those two numbers measure different things. The first is what shoppers pay. The second is what the publisher keeps. Put both on the same footing and the gap that looks enormous at the till mostly closes. Pokémon wins the shelf. At the publisher line, the two giants are about the same size.
Two ways to size Pokémon’s Western cards
TPC publishes no card revenue by region, so the trainer’s notes builds the number two independent ways and checks whether they agree. (For how a pack’s price is split between TPC and the channel, see Trading cards.)
From the shelf. Start with Circana’s US figure. Assume cards are 60–85% of it, add Canada, and North America comes to $1.41–2.38bn. Europe has no Europe-wide card figure. Circana’s country shares for France, Germany and the UK, scaled up, give $0.64–1.49bn. Together: $2.05–3.87bn.
From the printing press. TPC says roughly how many cards it prints. Take the cards not sold in Japan, assume what share go West, and price them at list. That gives $1.41–2.59bn.
The two builds overlap only at $2.05–2.59bn, the top of the print count’s range. That is the interesting part. There is a subtler point here. The shelf build’s low end stacks several cautious assumptions, and Circana’s own growth figures imply cards are more like 0.72–0.89 of the Pokémon total, not the cautious floor. At that share, the Western shelf alone is worth more than the trainer’s notes’ estimate for all cards sold outside Japan at list, $2.34bn. Something has to give: a richer mix of premium products, fewer cards going to Japan, or a bigger print.
Two builds, one overlap
Estimated retail value of Pokémon cards in North America and Europe, 2025, $ billion, built two independent ways.
- Estimated range
- Where both could be right
The shelf build and the print build overlap at the top of the print range.
Built from .Show the numbers
| Build | Estimated range, $bn | Where both could be right, $bn | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counting what shops sold | (2.05–3.87) | – | |
| Counting cards printed | (1.41–2.59) | – | |
| Overlap | – | (2.05–2.59) |
Estimated range. Both are our derived ranges, at US-list-price-equivalent dollars for North America and Europe, not what the publisher books. Shop sales: Circana’s US toy figure times an assumed 60–85% card share, plus Canada and Europe. Cards printed: ex-Japan print, 60–85% of it going West, at $0.449 a card times a price factor of 1.0–1.3.
Where both could be right. An overlap of two wide ranges, not a convergent estimate.
What Hasbro files for Magic
Magic is the rare card game with a filed number. Hasbro reports Magic’s net revenue on its own line: $1,720.1m in 2025, up 59.5% in a single year. That is a filed figure, and it is revenue Hasbro keeps after the channel takes its cut.
Hasbro does not split Magic by region. Its 10-K has regional rows for consumer products but none for its Wizards of the Coast segment or for Magic. A floor can still be squeezed out of the notes. Take Hasbro’s total US revenue, subtract every dollar that could belong to its other segments, and what remains must be Wizards. Subtract the rest of Wizards, and Magic’s US revenue is at least $840.8m, or 48.9% of the total. Only subtraction of filed numbers is involved. That floor rules out any estimate that puts all of Magic’s North American sales below it.
Like for like: the publisher line
TPCi sells cards to distributors and stores, not to fans, and keeps only part of the list price. The trainer’s notes’ central estimate of that share is 46–49% of list. Apply it and Pokémon’s Western card revenue falls to something comparable with Hasbro’s line.
The trap is to compare Pokémon’s biggest number, at the shelf, with Magic’s, at the publisher line. Put both at the publisher line. Converting the print count at TPCi’s central share of list gives $0.66–1.22bn. Converting the shelf build at the same share lands higher, overlapping the top of that range and running above it. Against Magic’s Western revenue, estimated at $1.12–1.55bn, Pokémon runs from 0.43× Magic’s size to more than one and a half times it. The middle of that range is roughly level.
Why is the low end so low? Not because of how the two companies sell. The low end comes from one thin corner of the print model, where few cards go West and the mix is all basic packs. Channel structure explains only a modest gap in the share each publisher keeps. Wizards, which sells partly direct to stores, kept about 52.9% of list on its direct route in 2018, close to TPCi’s central share.
The rest of the field is far smaller. No other publisher reports card revenue by brand. Konami’s US and European companies cap Yu-Gi-Oh! at $0.51–0.63bn once its casino-machine business is netted out. Bandai’s overseas companies cap ONE PIECE at ¥45.3bn, though cards exported from Japan are counted in Japan, so that ceiling has a leak. Lorcana, made by Ravensburger, is an estimated €89–163m, down 28–42% in 2025.
Pokémon and Magic, then everyone else
Estimated 2025 card revenue to the publisher in North America and Europe, $ billion. Lorcana and the Magic dot are worldwide.
- Pokémon, estimated range
- Other games, estimated range
- Ceiling: no more than
- Magic worldwide, reported by Hasbro
- Estimate
At the publisher line Pokémon and Magic overlap. Yu-Gi-Oh!, ONE PIECE and Lorcana are capped far below.
Built from , and .Show the numbers
| Card game | Pokémon, estimated range, $bn | Other games, estimated range, $bn | Ceiling: no more than, $bn | Magic worldwide, reported by Hasbro, $bn | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon, from shop sales | (0.96–1.82) | – | – | – | |
| Magic: The Gathering | – | (1.12–1.55) | – | ||
| Pokémon, from cards printed | (0.66–1.22) | – | – | – | |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! | – | – | – | ||
| ONE PIECE | – | – | – | ||
| Disney Lorcana | – | (0.10–0.19) | – | – |
Pokémon, estimated range. Pokémon: what the publisher keeps at a 47% share of list price, applied to the print count and to the shop-sales build.
Other games, estimated range. Magic: 65–90% of Hasbro’s filed worldwide figure, our assumption. Lorcana is implied from Ravensburger’s results and is worldwide.
Ceiling: no more than. Ceilings only. Yu-Gi-Oh!: Konami’s US and European revenue less its gaming segment. ONE PIECE: Bandai’s toys and hobby revenue outside Japan, which leaks because exported cards count in Japan.
Magic worldwide, reported by Hasbro. The only filed publisher figure among these games.
Why the ranking flips with the channel
Where you stand decides which game looks bigger. In German toy stores, Circana gives Pokémon over 84% of the trading-card sub-category. Amigo, Pokémon’s German distributor, grew by €68m, while Magic, ONE PIECE and Marvel cards together grew by just over €4m. Go to the resale market and the order reverses. TCGplayer, the big US card marketplace, ranks Magic first, Pokémon second, on “total dollar value of all sales”.
The industry’s own market sizes do not settle it either. ICv2, a trade publisher, puts the US and Canadian hobby games market at $3.66bn, about two-thirds of it card games. It defines that market “regardless of whether they're sold in the hobby channel or other channels”. It cannot be a shop-price total: Magic’s filed US floor, grossed up to list, plus Pokémon’s smallest US card estimate already exceed it. Circana’s rough share for strategic card games implies a bigger pool, $4.20–4.45bn, of which Pokémon is 34–51%. ICv2’s figure is either at wholesale prices or too low.
Where it goes next. Hasbro’s guidance has Wizards at “mid-single-digit revenue growth” in 2026. Circana has US games and puzzles up 45% in the first half. If that growth is mostly Pokémon, which the data do not yet show, Pokémon pulls clear of Magic at the publisher line in 2026.