Pokemon TCG Production Numbers, Pull Rates, & more

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Hi everyone!

I’d like to share this document I made and hear thoughts / feedback from the forum:

The inspiration was An Elaborate Attempt at Print Run Estimates by @gottaketchumall. This was always a great mystery to me and I figured the info is worth compiling in one place. I chose to not include any assumptions about averages of the sets to remain as objective as possible. (Although maybe that would be interesting for the sake of discussion?)

Hope you enjoy! Please comment here, or reach out directly if you have any more information on production numbers (missing French / JP sources), would like to help fill out the doc, or anything else you see fit.

Questions
  • Are Tag Team Alts Arts Really the same pull rates as their Ultra Rare counterparts?
  • Is there a better way to format and present this information?
  • Why are Shining Rares from Neo Rev calculated as more abundant than the Rare Holos?
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This thread needs more engagement for the work put into it so I fed it into chatGPT to help summarize the high level points and make a graph as a conversational opener

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:package: 1. Print Volume Trends

  • Gen 1–2 (1996–2002): Started small, but Team Rocket (1997) hit 500M; Neo Revelation (2001) marked the first major spike at 12 billion cards.
  • Gen 3–5 (2003–2013): Print volumes rose steadily, with EX Deoxys (2005) and Unseen Forces (2005) pushing past 13–14B.
  • Gen 6 (2013–2016): Explosive growth—BREAKthrough (2015) reached 21.5B.
  • Gen 7 (2017–2019): Continued acceleration, with Hidden Fates (2019) marking 28.8B.
  • Gen 8 (2020–2022): Sets like Brilliant Stars reached 43.2B.
  • Gen 9 (2023–2025): Massive growth—Temporal Forces (2024) at 64.8B, and Journey Together (2025) capped at 75B cards produced.
  • Gen 10 (2025+): Active, but volume data is not yet available.

:test_tube: 2. Pull Rate Evolution

  • Gen 1–2: Simpler system — ~1 holo per pack, no major alternate rarities.
  • Gen 3–4: Introduction of EX, SR, Gold Stars (GS), LV.X, and Legend mechanics.
  • Gen 5–6: First Full Arts, Shinies, and Trainer Galleries.
  • Gen 7–8: Major expansions of rarity classes: UR, RR, GR, and later Alternate Art (AA) and Secret Rares (SR).
  • Gen 9: New rarities—Illustration Rare (IR), Special IR (SIR), and Hyper Rare (HR) with 10–30+ special cards per set.
  • Modern sets average 100–250 cards, with 15+ chase cards and pull rates split across multiple tiers.

:card_index_dividers: 3. Set Size Growth

  • Gen 1–2: Sets ranged from ~60–130 cards.
  • Gen 3–4: Expansion began, with E-cards and EX sets going up to ~165.
  • Gen 5–6: Normalized sets at ~150; some reached 180+ (e.g., Plasma Storm, Primal Clash).
  • Gen 7–8: Set counts ballooned—Cosmic Eclipse (271) and Lost Thunder (236) among the largest.
  • Gen 9: Sets like Paldea Evolved (279) and Surging Sparks (252) reflect the trend toward large sets with high secret rare counts.
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Thank you for doing this, tediorso! I somehow missed this thread but it’s a great resource without any doubt.

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There were def some formatting and over generalization issues with the first iteration of the doc as well! It was giving :Charlie Kelly meme:

I’ve since parsed out pull rates and crossed referenced Gen2-6 with more reliable sources. Added an Overview with Averages, & made this fun “print run calculator” !

If you’re clicking around and notice anything wrong please reach out!

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