The Pokémon Company is Making SO Much Money

[ASFN Admin]

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It’s 2026 and Charizard, Evee and Pikachu are more famous than almost any athlete in the world. At the hobby events I sell at, my Pokemon binders get more action than the deodorant aisle at the grocery store before a card show. But if you think the Pokémon boom is just cultural noise, you need to look at the numbers. The Pokémon Company just wrapped up its 28th fiscal year, ending on February 28, 2026, and the numbers are astounding.

Reported here first, this is how the top-line numbers break down:

• 
  Net Sales: $3.34 billion, or ¥531.428 billion, which is up 29.3% year-over-year.
  
  
• 
  Operating Profit: $904 million, or ¥143.972 billion, up 43.0%.
  
  
• 
  Net Profit: $754 million, or ¥120.056 billion, an explosive 70.7% jump.
  

To put this kind of scale into perspective, as recently as 2021, their annual revenue sat around $750 million. In just five years, the franchise’s revenue has more than quadrupled.

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Yen to USD conversion rate: 159 to 1 used for this analysis. Numbers calculated on June 1st, 2026.

The Cardboard Engine​

So, what is actually fueling this massive surge? A lot of it is the trading card hobby.

Many expected the pandemic-era card frenzy to eventually cool off, but it simply never happened. Sealed product continues to vanish from retail shelves, new collectors are pouring in, and secondary-market demand remains white-hot.

The scale of this demand is staggering when you look at the physical printing numbers:

• 
  As of March 2026, the company has printed over 85 billion cards all-time across the globe.
  
  
• 
  Roughly 10 billion of those cards were printed in the past year alone.
  
  
• 
  It took Pokémon a full 25 years to print their first 43 billion cards. They have matched that entire quarter-century total in just the last four years.
  

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This physical boom was further amplified by the October 2024 launch of the free-to-play Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket app, which brought an enormous new audience into the collecting ecosystem. Following that digital release, marquee physical sets like Surging Sparks and Prismatic Evolutions were basically sold out on arrival.

The Supply Crisis​

Right now, Pokémon’s biggest problem isn’t generating hype; it’s simply printing enough cardboard to keep up with us. To fight back against these massive shortages and the scalpers exploiting them, the company is taking drastic action:

• 
  Building Bigger: Their printing arm is constructing a massive 1.27 million-square-foot factory, though full production isn’t expected until late 2028.
  
  
• 
  Controlling the Flow: They recently acquired the US distributor Excell Brands to tighten their grip on product allocation, control pricing, and stop leaks that feed resellers.
  
  
• 
  ID Checks: In Japan, Pokémon Centers are now requiring buyers to show government IDs just to purchase certain items in an attempt to curb scalping.
  

The Takeaway​

The ceiling for Pokémon just keeps moving. With the massive 30th-anniversary celebration on the horizon, the franchise, which is jointly owned by Nintendo, Creatures Inc., and Game Freak, is firing on all cylinders.


All around the hobby, talking heads have been saying it’s only a matter of time before it all crashes down. These numbers contradict that view point directly.


For collectors, the question isn’t if the hobby is slowing down, but rather how high these numbers can actually go while the printers desperately try to catch up to the demand.

Note: All Yen to USD conversions were made using today’s exchange rate of about ¥159.27 per USD (mid-market, as of June 1, 2026). All amounts are in millions of USD.


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