Pokémon Isn't Printing Enough

Something is wrong with the Pokémon Company’s public card printing data.

Every year, The Pokémon Company updates a page on their corporate website that lists their accomplishments as a company. This page includes an all-time cards printed figure.

That number has recently been updated to “over 75 billion” cards, indicating they printed more than 10 billion new cards during their last fiscal year.

Check it out yourself here.

The problem is, a year ago, this same number increased from about 53 billion to 64.8: nearly 12 billion cards were printed during the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

So, the count of new cards printed actually decreased during the 2024-2025 fiscal year, despite the fact that:

1. Japanese Pokémon cards saw massive reprints across all kinds of sets, including:

   1. 151

   2. Shiny Treasure ex

   3. Clay Burst

   4. Paradigm Trigger (yes, they reprinted Sword & Shield era sets in 2024…)

   5. And more

2. The Simplified Chinese market grew considerably, and

3. The English Pokémon market entered yet another Boom Phase, driving demand through the roof.

Despite the massive print volumes of Japanese Pokémon cards, the growing popularity of Chinese Pokémon cards, and the absolute surge of interest in English Pokémon cards… they printed fewer cards?

What’s going on here??

The History of Pokémon Reprints

In the past, the Pokémon Company and the Pokémon Company International were known for prioritizing access to product over the secondary market prices. When kids could no longer get their hands on Pokémon card products at reasonable prices, they would ramp up printing significantly to make sure their young fans (and the wider player base) were served.

As a result of this policy, collectors and investors who were hoarding modern product would see the value of their holdings crash as the new supply flooded the market.

We’ve seen this pattern as recently as late 2021 and 2022, when products like Chilling Reign and Fusion Strike booster boxes were reprinted in huge amounts and crashed to all-time low prices of $79.95 a booster box. And all kinds of Sword & Shield era sets were dragged down with them.

And, we saw a similarly destructive reprint in late 2016/2017 when the XY Evolutions set was released. Initially quite popular, it was printed in such high quantities the boxes crashed to, and stayed, below $100 USD for more than 3 years.

And, prior to that, there was a famous shortage of the XY Roaring Skies that included an essential playable card: the infamous Shaymin ex card (one of the most powerful support card ever printed by The Pokémon Company that was played in nearly every competitive deck at the time).

The Pokémon Company decided it was more important that players have access to affordable Shaymin ex and reprinted this set to oblivion.

This was the reprint that caused Rudy from Alpha Investments to declare that the “Roaring Skies Reprint just RUINED Pokemon's Credibility - 100% DESTROYED”

The video has not aged well….

Today:

• XY Roaring Skies is $2,500+ a booster box

• XY Evolutions is $1,200+ a booster box, and

• Fusion Strike and Chilling Reign are $400+ and $700+ respectively.

Despite the short-term destruction caused by reprints, these sets have all recovered from their all-time low prices and the hobby has continued to grow.

How much of this growth is driven by the accessibility of the Pokémon products after reprints? The fact that kids could walk into their local store and buy Pokémon cards at reasonable prices has certainly contributed to the on-going, long-term growth of the Pokémon card hobby.

At least, that was the theory expressed by The Pokémon Company International’s historical printing strategy.

Not Enough Cards in 2025

But today, when Pokémon is more popular than ever, how have the total print volumes decreased?

From the moment the 151 set was released, I have cautioned investors and collectors that the reprints will come.

As a popular new set that was immediately sold out and selling for massive premiums on the secondary market, I was convinced the Pokémon Company would follow their pattern of prioritizing accessibility and reprint the set.

In Japan, it took a while, but we finally saw massive reprints in 2024 that completely reset the price of the product from $200+ USD booster box, back to $50-60 USD. The Pokémon Company in Japan followed the historical pattern: they made sure this popular set was available to everyone.

But, for the English market, the reprints never came.

It wasn’t until the new Blooming Waters Collection Box landed in early 2025, more than 1.5 years after the set’s original release, that we saw any significant new supply hit the market.

But, by this time, the market had transitioned from the Dormant Phase into a new Boom Phase, drawing more collectors and investors to the market than ever before. And this influx of new participants absolutely inhaled the new 151 supply, resulting in barely any movement in the secondary market prices.

The evidence is irrefutable: English 151 needed more supply. This has been true from the time it was released, and is still true today.

But, now that we’re in another Boom Phase, every set needs more supply.

In fact, the Pokémon Company International has acknowledged this, and promised to take action… On January 15, 2025 they posted on their official X (Twitter) account that:

Here’s that tweet in full:

As of mid-June 2025 as I write this, there’s no evidence of this new supply.

But, more importantly, it should not have taken them until Jan 2025 to realize they needed to print more: the shortages of English 151 demonstrated this fact beyond a shadow of a doubt!

How Pokémon Printed Less in 2025

We know Japanese and Simplified Chinese Pokémon cards were printed in increased quantities throughout the 2024 fiscal year. Therefore, the data suggests that the only explanation for the lower overall print volume during that time is that the English business printed significantly less.

Despite the growing popularity of their products.

Despite the persistent shortage of English 151 product that had persisted for more than a year.

Despite the clear trend towards a new Boom Phase that would drive demand even higher for English product.

We don’t know why (there are all kinds of practical reasons they might not have been capable of printing more over the past year) but given their history of massive reprints, my gut tells me they were, in fact, capable of printing more.

It feels like they might be prioritizing the secondary market over kids and players after all.

And, long-term, its unclear what this means for the Pokémon hobby.

If you read this far, thank you. Feel free to reply and let me know what you think about the latest Pokémon printing figures and thank you so much for reading!