The Pokemon Card Game started 30 years ago, overcame a period of poor sales and flagging interest, and is now riding an extended wave of popularity far beyond the expectations of company officials.

The game made a dramatic comeback seven years ago, and the first smartphone app of the game was released last October, fueling its popularity.

More than 64.8 billion Pokemon cards have been printed so far.

“Conventional paper-made Pokemon cards are sold in 93 countries and regions. We developed the app to reach even more people,” Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokemon Company, which manages the Pokemon brand, said at an event for the release of the app.

The app allows players to collect more than 250 original cards and engage in simple battles. The company hopes the easy-to-start app will lead to more sales of the paper cards.

In general, the cards feature a specific Pokemon, as well as its moves and special abilities.

Two players can fight by flipping cards to reveal their monsters, with the stronger one winning the battle. The player who first wins six battles is declared the victor.

According to the Japan Toy Association, the domestic trading card market had been worth around 100 billion yen ($632 million) until fiscal 2017.

But since fiscal 2018, the market rapidly expanded to reach a record high of 277.4 billion yen in fiscal 2023. Trading cards accounted for about 27 percent of the entire toy market.

The Annual Game Industry Report in 2023 published by Media Create Co. said Pokemon cards accounted for about half of the domestic trading card market and were clearly a driving force of its growth.

In recent years, long lines have formed in front of stores selling the cards, especially when new ones become available. Some vendors have restricted purchases to prevent hoarding.

This level of popularity is in stark contrast to when Pokemon cards were launched in 1996 as Japan’s first full-scale trading and playing cards.

Previously, the main goal concerning trading cards, including those of professional baseball players, was to collect as many of them as possible.

The Pokemon cards introduced a new element, namely use for battles.

Yu-Gi-Oh! cards released in 1999 also widened the trading card market.

Since then, using manga and anime characters for card games has been a successful form of business.

In the 2000s, however, the popularity of Pokemon cards slowed down.

“There was a time when we couldn’t sell cards even if we made them cheaper than the retail price,” a long-time manager of a card store in Tokyo recalled.

She said inventories continued to pile up.

“I believe that our sales staff had a hard time,” said Keita Hirobe, an executive officer in charge of the card business at The Pokemon Company.

Many new competitors appeared, and some companies began to specialize in trading cards. Pokemon cards fell to sixth or seventh place in the market.

Even when the company planned Pokemon product campaigns with distributing companies, convenience stores sometimes refused to put the cards on their shelves.

A product launched in 2018 triggered the V-shaped revival that led to the current boom.

The product was a package containing a set of 60 cards that allowed players to start battling without any other preparations.

Nine types of sets were sold for 500 yen each, excluding tax.

It was easy to play with just one set, and players only needed a 500-yen coin to join.

Some YouTube videos promoted purchases of the sets. Sales were much higher than what the company had expected.

Production could not keep up with demand, and the products became difficult to find at stores.

The prices of similar products rose to 1,000 yen to 2,000 yen.

“It was an exceptional price, but we wanted to increase the number of users, even if this product alone would not be enough to make the business profitable,” Hirobe said.

By the time the 60-card packages were first sold in 2018, the generation that grew up with Pokemon started to spend more of their hard-earned money on their hobbies.

“We had built a base for a jump up,” Hirobe said.

In contrast with Japan, Pokemon cards had long maintained their popularity overseas, particularly in the United States. This is because ordinary players held their own competitions in various regions, creating environments where it was easy to enjoy the game.

In the first half of the 2010s, the company imported the overseas system and encouraged Japanese players to hold competitions.

The company’s employees went to these competition venues to hear directly from participants about their suggestions and complaints, and they used the information for product development and competition management.

Hirobe also visited various venues.

With these fans as the core, the company could smoothly provide environments for people to play the game in Japan.

The popularity of the game has ballooned to extraordinary levels over the past few years.

Card prices soared on the secondhand market and robberies targeting high-value and rare cards were reported around the country.

“The spread over the past two to three years has been beyond our imagination. I am truly sorry that the cards are no longer available to those who want to play the card game,” Hirobe said.

He added, “We’ve also discussed how to address dangerous situations observed in several cases, such as conflicts between customers waiting in line to purchase our cards.”

As of September 2024, the company was gradually increasing production of the cards while refraining from advertising.