How Many Pokémon Cards Are There?

Posted by Magic Madhouse on 21st Jun 2023

That’s the simple answer, but we aren’t content with that. We are going to take a deep dive into the different types of cards available, why there are so many and what makes them so special. In fact, if we are talking about the number of cards printed in total, then it exceeds 43 BILLION, with 9 billion of those being printed between March 2021 and March 2022. Just let those numbers sink in for a second!

How many Pokémon cards are there? Millions!

As far as different, individual cards ever printed since Pokémon began in 1996 in Japan, it is difficult to get an exact number. There have been countless promotional cards and prize cards made alongside all the main series sets. With the introduction of Generation 9 in late 2022, there are now 1,015 different Pokémon registered in the Pokedex. That alone puts us in a good position for a lot of cards.

The release of Scarlet and Violet, the latest TCG set in March 2023, meant there are now 95 English main sets and 88 Japanese sets. By just adding up all the cards in the main series of english sets, we get around 14,279. That’s a lot! And that doesn’t include promos or any other type of card, just main set releases. On top of these, there have also been 13 special set releases in English, which began in the Black and White era. We are seeing much larger set lists these days compared to the original sets so it is likely that number will rise quicker and quicker. For example, Sword and Shield Fusion Strike had 284 cards, and Base Set had 102. The next set, Jungle, only had a meagre 64 cards!

As well as sets generally increasing in size, the number of available promos is increasing with each generation as more products are released and the game is growing. Pokémon has never been as popular as it is now and so it’s not hard to see why there are so many cards.

Where did Pokémon Cards Begin?

Pokémon cards originated in Japan with the Base Set in 1996. It then made its way to the Western World in 1999 and was hugely popular throughout Europe and America. The cards were broken down into 3 main categories for playing, Pokémon, Trainer and Energy cards. Pokémon can’t attack without Energy cards and you need Trainer cards to help you search through your deck to get the pieces you need. It was quite different from the game as it is today.

That probably helps to explain some of the inflated card pools we see today. Now we have Trainer cards broken down into different categories within their own category. Trainers can be Supporters, Items, Tools or Stadiums as opposed to just Trainers, as they were back then. There was only one Special Energy card, Double Colourless Energy, not the plethora of Single and Rapid Strike Style energies we have today! Speaking of energy, there were no Dark, Fairy or Metal types either, only Fighting, Fire, Grass, Lighting, Psychic and Water.

We have now had over 25 years of Pokémon and it has gained more and more popularity over those years. The common release schedule for sets nowadays is 4 main sets per year plus 1 or 2 holiday sets per year. Japanese sets have a slightly different release schedule, usually releasing our main sets split into 2 smaller sets.

The Different Pokémon Sets

As we mentioned earlier, there have been nearly 100 main sets released in English and 88 released in Japanese. This adds up to an awful lot of cards! Special sets are often overlooked when deciding on how many cards there are and there have been 13 to date printed in English. The first of these was Dragon Vault, printed in 2012 as part of the Black and White series. The most recent of these is one that you are probably all familiar with and that was Sword and Shield Crown Zenith. These sets also tend to be a lot smaller than main releases, although Crown Zenith was a whopping 230 cards. Compare that to Dragon Vault at 21 cards and it’s not hard to see why the number of cards available is growing quicker and quicker. Long gone are the days where 120 cards was considered a massive set!

Each set brings with it new designs, mechanics and quite often new Pokémon. The first set in each generation is always the best place to see this and our switch from Sword and Shield into Scarlet and Violet has made this particularly evident. Gone from packs are the VMAX’s and VSTAR’s which have been such a huge part of the game for the last 2 years (they are mostly still playable in the standard format rotation though) and we have welcomed in ‘ex Pokémon’ to take their places. The first sets from a generation are often a hit amongst collectors as well as it is the first look at most of the new Pokémon and any changes.

How Can I Get Pokémon Cards?

These days it’s easy to get your hands on the latest cards and there are cards for sale everywhere. The availability of online stores, like ours at Magic Madhouse, has made it simple to get all the latest cards delivered to your door in time for release day! There are also lots of local stores that hold events and giveaways that you can get involved in.

There are lots of different ways to collect cards and play the game. Some competitive players just buy the cards they need to build their decks. This is by far the most efficient way to do this. As we have seen, there are plenty of modern sets which contain over 240 cards and if you only want one card from the set then it is going to be a lot cheaper to just buy the card, as opposed to a booster box which you may not even find what you are looking for!

Some people collect sealed cards and so like to buy booster boxes, elite trainer boxes, and any other sealed product really, and keep them sealed in their collection forever. Some try to collect ‘Master Sets’ (a complete set of cards including all promos and reverse holos) and so it can be effective to open a couple of booster boxes and then trade any doubles for cards you need and purchase the rest as singles. Some people just like to collect their favourite Pokémon and will grab every card that features their favourite. Collections formed in this way can span every generation and are great to look through as you can see the journey of Pokémon cards across the years.

The Different Types of Pokémon Cards

There are 3 main subcategories of cards in Pokémon, Pokémon, Trainers and Energy cards. Each plays a specific role in the game and a good deck will often need a good mixture of all of them to be successful. That also means that for the game to develop and not become stale, there needs to be a mixture of cards printed each time. As much as a set featuring just awesome Pokémon would be brilliant, it wouldn’t be the most practical for players.

Each category of card has some highly collectable cards within it. Gold Pokémon, full art supporters and even secret rare energy! Collectors are thankful for the mix as well. As the sets progress, there are more and more cards printed to accommodate the amount of secret rare cards and full art cards. These are popular amongst both players and collectors and are often some of the most valuable cards in the newer sets.

The game is primarily for playing and I’m sure that there are very few cards printed that have never featured in a deck somewhere in the world. Of course, there are always going to be cards which are inherently more powerful and these are usually the most popular in a set, particularly if it is a fan favourite Pokémon as well, such as a Charizard.

Supporter cards are often the main engine that makes your deck function smoothly and there are more and more art variations of these cards being produced. Similar to the Pokémon, the most playable supporters printed in full art or alternate art variants often end up being very expensive. There has been a massive increase in the number of people who collect full art supporters in recent years and they have really taken off with producing more and more.

Even the lowly energy has become more of a collectors piece, with significantly more secret rare and reverse holo energies being printed in modern times. Players enjoy having gold, secret rare energy cards in their decks to play with and collectors enjoy displaying these same cards. Each of the more recent generations have had different variants of the gold energies in their own style and so there are quite a few to collect now.

As you can see, there are a lot of Pokémon cards out there! It can be easy to get lost down the rabbit hole and decide you want to collect everything! Sadly, that’s just not practical for a lot of people. Thankfully, Pokémon has given us so much choice of where we want to take our collections or our playing decks and allowed us so much freedom of unique choice that you really can collect exactly what you want.