I saw this today and thought it was worthy of a topic! The images are of the highest grossing IP’s of all time, and it breaks down the revenue. Honestly surprised how much of Pokémon is merchandise:
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Source
This is from 2018-19ish so a bit outdated
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I think the most interesting comparison here is Pokemon vs. Yu-Gi-Oh. Look at the role of trading cards in Yu-Gi-Oh’s revenue stream vs. Pokemon. Surely this has changed quite a lot since 2018-2019, but I am willing to bet that merchandise will always reign supreme for Pokemon.
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Considering they drop new merch on Pokemon Center and other stores what feels like daily, as well as 1000 different characters to use, this makes sense to me lol.
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I read something similar once and was surprised that Toy Story is so huge. I remember watching that movie in cinema multiple times along with Lion King, free cinema tickets when going with a parent on the weekends!
3 mangas and one anime I haven’t ever heard of before on that list, interesting stuff.
While I’m sure the data has changed since 2018-19 I can certainly see why merch sales would be the largest contributors to Pokemon’s success now.
Video games and trading cards may only appeal to certain audiences as not everyone collects cards and plays games (it’s better than it was 20 years ago but there still exists a perception that those are for kids). On the other hand, plushies and apparel are just so universal and you can see on sites like Pokemon Center that there’s been a conscious effort from their marketing team to target adult audiences and sell Pokemon as a lifestyle. It’s really impressive actually that Pokemon went from a one-off fad for kids to a worldwide cultural phenomenon and is now as instantly recognizable as pop culture mainstays like the Disney IPs.
Here are some graphs that are a bit more recent. Courtesy of everyone’s favorite business stats database Statista.
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Wow - Hello Kitty much higher than I realized
Where is MTG?
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It would be interesting to know where everything stands from just a TCG perspective. Pokemon, MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh and maybe some Sports or others if possible. Surely MTG is in the top 5 when looking at just TCG revenues?
Regardless, this is what separates Pokemon from the pack in so many ways. It is simply a massive brand in so many areas beyond the TCG.
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