Macro
How big is the trading-card market — and how does it compare to the industries around it?
Every figure on this page carries its publisher, year, region, confidence band, and methodology link. Modeled estimates and measured publisher data are color-coded so you can see at a glance which is which. The shape of the ladder matters more than any single number.
US Pokémon TCG (secondary, 2024)
$2.4B$2.9B$3.5B
US TCG total (secondary, 2024)
$3.7B$4.4B$5.3B
Global gaming consumer spend (2024)
$180.0B$187.7B$195.0B
The 2024 ladder of scale
- $180.0B$187.7B$195.0B
- $54.0B$56.7B$60.0B
- $26.0B$28.0B$30.0B
- $7.0B$8.5B$10.5B
- $3.8B$4.5B$5.5B
- $3.7B$4.4B$5.3B
- $1.9B$2.3B$2.7B
- $1.2B$1.4B$1.7B
- $1.2B$1.4B$1.8B
- $800M$950M$1.1B
- $770M$920M$1.1B
- $720M$880M$1.1B
- $700M$850M$1.0B
- $420M$530M$650M
- $170M$220M$280M
US Pokémon Secondary GMV — annual series (2020 → 2025)
| Year | Low | Base | High | Confidence | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $700M | $850M | $1.0B | Moderate · 55% | Source · CardSearch Market — Modeled | Modeled US Pokémon secondary GMV (eBay + TCGplayer + LCS + auction houses). |
| 2021 | $2.0B | $2.4B | $2.9B | Moderate · 60% | Source · CardSearch Market — Modeled | Pandemic peak. Logan Paul Charizard era; eBay collectibles up 40%+ YoY. |
| 2022 | $1.5B | $1.8B | $2.1B | Moderate · 62% | Source · CardSearch Market — Modeled | Cooling cycle off the 2021 peak. |
| 2023 | $1.6B | $1.9B | $2.1B | Moderate · 65% | Source · CardSearch Market — Modeled | 151 set drove a sealed re-acceleration; singles flat to up. |
| 2024 | $1.9B | $2.3B | $2.7B | Moderate · 66% | Source · CardSearch Market — Modeled | Stellar Crown + Surging Sparks + Pocket halo on physical. |
| 2025 | $2.4B | $2.9B | $3.5B | Moderate · 62% | Source · CardSearch Market — Modeled | Preliminary 2025 estimate; modeled forward as YoY +26%. |
How we built these numbers
- 1. Source what we can
TPCI, eBay 10-Ks, Toy Association / Circana excerpts, Newzoo headlines — every public publisher disclosure we can verify.
- 2. Model the rest, openly
Where no public number exists we model it bottom-up from the measured marketplace data we ingest, and label the resultModeledwith a confidence band.
- 3. Audit every revision
The monthly GPT-5 research cron writes a new revision row each time it updates a figure. Every change keeps the prior value, the new value, and the cited evidence. Nothing is silent.