Pokemon Trading Card Game
It's from 1996, before you were born.
- Maker
- Wizards of the Coast / The Pokémon Company
- Type
- Trading card game
- Debuted
- 1996 (Japan), 1999 (US)
- Note
- A holographic Charizard can sell for a fortune
As an Amazon Associate, OlderThan earns from qualifying purchases.
About
As of 2026, it's 30 years old.
The Pokémon Trading Card Game launched in Japan in 1996 and hit the US in 1999, riding the Pokémon tidal wave to become a schoolyard obsession — and the source of countless banned-from-class card collections. The actual game has real strategic depth, but for most kids the point was collecting, trading, and praying for a holographic Charizard.
Decades later it became an genuine investment frenzy, with sealed vintage boxes and graded rare cards selling for staggering sums, and celebrities live-streaming pack openings. The cards your parents may have thrown out could've funded a down payment.
Collectible, beloved, and improbably valuable, the Pokémon TCG is the card game that conquered the playground and then, decades later, the auction house.
