From humble beginnings as a simple collector’s hobby, Pokémon cards have become a trend which has swept through the world.
They were first created in Japan in 1996 and gained major global popularity among young people and children in the late ’90s and 2000s.
They were intended to be a part of a wider game where each player’s Pokémon would face each other, similar to the games and TV series, but they are mainly used as collector’s items.
Pokémon content creator Alice, known as pokemum.alice on TikTok, said: “I started collecting Pokémon cards in 2000.
“I think I used to go to the little corner shop near my house every Friday. My mum used to take me, and I used to get one pack like every so often if I’d been good at school and things like that.
“I remember when I opened my first pack, I think my first shiny card was a shiny Clefairy.
“I remember being so excited about it, I just had it in my pocket, took it everywhere. I’ve still got it.”
In recent years, Pokémon cards have once again exploded in popularity, especially on social media.
But why did they get so popular in the first place?
As with many other things, Pokémon cards seem to have gained the majority of their modern popularity from social media.
There has been a rise in people creating content surrounding these trading cards, showing off their collections, opening packs and documenting their journeys in the community.
When looking on TikTok and Instagram, the hashtag #PokémonCards is associated with over 6.9 million videos combined, outlining just how popular the topic is.
Social media has proven to be a way for these collectors to grow and expand the Pokémon community, helping individuals to make new friends and even trade cards and collectables with each other.
Alice said: “I think there was a bit of a Pokémon boom about a couple of years ago and there was loads of creators that were just spending a lot of money that I didn’t feel like they loved the hobby.
“They were just opening cards and kind of disregarding the common cards, and I think that ignited me to be like, ‘I’d love to do something that was a bit more community-focused and put that online’.
“And I’ve got a little boy who’s nearly four, and he started collecting when he was about three, so we started watching Pokémon and those kinds of things.
“I was like, it’d be lovely to have that representation online, in the community, as somebody who opens things and appreciates the cards, and plays the game a little bit as well.
“And I think I wanted to do something a little bit different, something that was a bit more family-focused and something that I could do with my son as well, so that’s why I put it online.”
There was also an app game released in 2024, which increased the popularity of the cards and the franchise as a whole.
In this game, titled Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, users could open virtual packets and build a collection online.
The game has over 120 million downloads worldwide and is rated highly on the App Store with a 4.79 rating out of five.
However, with the rise of such a hobby comes a rise in exploitation.
As with all collection hobbies, many people online have found that certain Pokémon cards carry quite a profit.
Pokemon card collector George Melvin said: “It has got popular due to the number of people using TikTok, and the cards being used as content and another form of investing by holding cards and selling them when they go up.
“It makes the hobby hard to participate in, and finding products hard due to people using automatic buying systems and waiting for hours before stores open to get a chance to buy all the products which the store has in”
For example, the most expensive card sold was the Illustrator Pikachu card, which went for $16million dollars, and many other cards go for similar prices.
This has attracted a group of individuals described as scalpers, who will buy Pokémon cards in bulk, mainly from stores, in hopes of collecting rare cards and selling them at a higher price.
So nowadays, instead of being able to walk into a store at any random time and buy a pack of cards, many now have to wait in long queues – sometimes from the morning – to even have the hope of receiving one pack.
The demand for the cards has become so unmanageable that some stores have to keep them behind the counter and limit customers to only one pack.
Even online, you will see live streams dedicated to ‘rip and ships’ where sellers will open packs paid for by viewers and ship the most expensive card to whoever paid for it.
Alice added: “I find it a bit frustrating because the problem is there’s a lot of stagnant stock.
“So, people are scalping, they go into the stores getting as much as they can and selling it for four or five times the price sometimes.
“And it marks children out of the hobby because they can’t get hold of anything. But then a lot of the stocks just not getting opened because it’s kind of being passed around as like a, as an investment piece.
“So I think that that’s kind of the worst part of Pokémon. But I’m hoping it dies down a little bit over the next kind of few months.”
The rise in popularity of these cards has the Pokémon community split.
TikTok user jce_tcg said: “Pokémon TCG has seen a huge resurgence, especially in 2025 and 2026. And that’s definitely because of the market value that’s being attached to the cards.
“Personally, I’m in two minds about it.
“I love how huge the fan base is getting and love seeing people share their cards and collections, but I don’t love that it’s become a stock and not a game.”
Melvin added: “Scalpers have caused the hobby to become less of a child’s game and more of an adults game.
“I joined the community when scalpers were at their highest and most popular, so for me in 2023, I could find packs in Argos, B&M, Sainsbury, Tesco, and Asda. But now you have to join a Reddit chat or get lucky.”
But even through the scalping and the desire for profit, the Pokémon community is still thriving, embracing new people, hosting events, and just sharing their joy of the hobby online and in real life.
Jce_tcg said: “My favourite part of being in this community is the excitement.
“No one can deny the rush of hunting for a chase card or pulling something great; it brings people together. It’s important to remember that we’re here because were admiring art, whether it be nostalgia or new Pokémon hype, we all share that in common
“I love that people want different things, and coming together to swap and trade brings a sense of togetherness that you really don’t get doing anything else.”
Featured image: Free to use from Thimo Pedersen via Unsplash
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