If you've so much as dipped a toe into the world of Pokemon cards, you'll know that availability is a bit of a problem – so it may come as a surprise to hear that this is despite roughly 10 billion cards being printed across the last year.
It's the kind of figure that shows just how dire things are for one of the best card games right now. Being able to get your hands on sets both new and old is a constant struggle due to demand and unscrupulous resellers who snatch up as many Pokemon cards as possible to flog at an inflated price, but the fact that 10 billion cards were printed over the last year alone puts the situation into context.
The most recent set, Chaos Rising, has been as massive a pain to buy as every other release in the past few years. I've had the most luck at Walmart and at Amazon, but bear in mind that these prices are inflated.
The figure comes from Pokemon's corporate statistics page (which celebrates the Pokemon series having sold over 500 million copies) and the use of Wayback Machine to show the figure this time last year. In 2025, it stated that "over 75 billion cards" had produced in total. That number has since risen to 85 billion, showing just how Pokemon cards were made in the intervening time.
Somehow, it's still not enough. I don't know what the solution is at this point; no matter whether you're trying to buy Pokemon TCG Pitch Black or an older release, you'd be lucky to find much. Hopefully things have improved even a little when we revisit those figures again this time next year.
Looking for something else to play? You shouldn't miss the best board games or the best tabletop RPGs.
