Why didn’t Yu-Gi-Oh make a comeback like Pokémon did?

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I ain’t reading through all of the replies, but I imagine this has been said somewhere up above: Yu-Gi-Oh! is a manga/anime/card game. Pokemon is the world’s largest multimedia franchise.

Pokemon has a lot of characters, but they’re developed and fleshed out across all of the different games, shows, etc. It is easy to make a card for any Pokemon as people like and recognize them. Casuals and non-players can easily partake because they know the characters.

YGO introduces new characters with every set. The manga and anime are not nearly as popular as Pokemon. Casual fans only know the old shit like Dark Magician, Blue Eyes, Red Eyes, Exodia, Egyptian Gods, Elemental Heroes, Stardust Dragon, etc. YGO can release reprints/rehashed versions of these cards with each set, and they do, but pulling “Exodia, the Legendary Defender” does not hit the same as pulling plain 'ol " Exodia the Forbidden One".

“Charizard ex” is still a Charizard. People recognize this and get excited.
“Blue-Eyes Malefic Dragon” is not the same as the OG Blue-Eyes (this example is very dated).

Edit: I often find myself wondering not “Why did YGO not comeback like Pokemon?” but rather “Why is YGO still alive?”.

I swear, the only stuff that I see at Target and elsewhere are reprint/anniversary-related products. Obviously, card shops will carry regular YGO sets but the big box stores seem to focus on nostalgia products and they always seem to have the same theme/gimmick (either anniversary-oriented or character oriented). As a kid, I got my YGO packs from big box stores and so not seeing regular packs at Target makes me question how the game is surviving without younger people getting into it.

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Never was into YGO but the art style is really ugly. It’s hard to get widespread appeal if the art itself can’t compare to, not even Pokemon, but all the recent, younger TCGs.

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I’ve seen a lot of points made, some I agree with and some I don’t.

I think the bigger question here is how did Pokemon pull out of the inevitable post initial hype slump better than Yugioh? And I think as a couple others here have stated, Yugioh just isn’t as big of a beast as Pokemon the brand. Both Yugioh and MTG are largely just card games, but the Pokemon card game is just one off shoot of the entire franchise of Pokemon. Pokemon is huge and there was never going to be a universe where Yugioh did better than Pokemon.

I think the main factor in Pokemon keeping relevance is the Pokemon games. For better or worse, Pokemon games have continued to sell well and everything Pokemon related are all offshoots of the games. The games are the backbone of this franchise and as long as those alone do well, the rest of the franchise (plushes, merch, card game etc) will continue to do well.

I used to tutor kids and they never once mentioned Yugioh or Magic the gathering but Pokemon was very popular. Some played the games, some hadn’t played any and just watched the tv show, some collected cards and some did all of the above. But the brand has so many different ways to appeal to kids and that is absolutely necessary for a franchise to survive and more importantly thrive for decades. Pokemon has done excellent in maintaining a brand that continues to appeal well to children over multiple generations which is why the pokemon tcg (and pokemon as a whole) is doing better than Yugioh.

As a side note, just look at star wars. It started as movies but it is now one of the biggest brands because it expanded massively into merch, video games, shows etc. Yugioh never really had this option given the source material itself is a card game which will always be a bit niche.

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I’ll keep my reply brief because I think the question has been thoroughly answered already.

  • Reprints: YGO reprints relentlessly, which erodes the collectability of the cards.

  • Consumers Demographics: Like MTG, YGO is a male-dominated TCG. This indirectly restricts the buyer pool. Pokemon has beaten the odds of nearly every TCG (with the exception of Lorcana and previously MetaZoo) by retaining consumers who aren’t male.

  • Barrier to Entry: Modern YGO is insanely competitive and complex. It used to be a very easy card game to learn and play, but that is not a reality anymore due to complex combos and scripture-length abilities on each card. Collecting is overwhelming due to the reprint madness - which of the 50+ Blue-Eyes White Dragon should I collect and why?

  • Lack of non-TCG Integration: Pokemon is so popular because there are many ways to enjoy it and it has broad appeal. TCG, games, anime, themed clothing and merchandise, plush, etc. YGO has this to a small extent, with most players focusing on the TCG and the occasional YouTube channel.

  • Money: Prices of vintage YGO cards and modern chase cards (e.g., Starlight rares) have grown substantially in recent years, but not nearly to the extent that prices in Pokemon have. If the investors who joined Pokemon dumped their money into YGO instead, I think that it would grow in popularity solely due to the prospect of money to be made.

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I was going to type out my pet peeves but I just made an image instead

yugiohdeath
yugiohdeath1920×2158 554 KB

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Pokemon has much broader appeal, and the brand is designed for almost everyone in mind. Ygo, on the other hand, is much more focussed on being a competitive card game with an anime and some merch on the side.

Personally, I love playing modern ygo because there is just nothing else out there that scratches that itch…

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Pokémon & Yu-Gi-Oh are kinda different regarding reprints. In Pokémon, you don’t have only 1 card per Pokémon, you have a large variety of cards starring a certain Pokémon and, in most cases, they were different each other. For example, Delibird … For Delibird you don’t have only 1 Delibird card where the only thing that changes is the card template or the artwork. You have a lot of Delibirds that are different each other in terms of gameplay & card text. :skyridge: Delibird is not the same as :exteamrocketreturns: Delibird for example.

Pokémon sometimes reprints Past Cards of certain Monsters. For example Masaki Gengar, Base Set Charizard or :jungle: Scyther.

Yu-Gi-Oh is a different story … You have a lot of reprints that are basically the same card (just with minor differences). For example, the Quarter Century Chronicle side: Unity Dark Magician Girl is the same as the Quarter Century Art Collection one. Some cards are reprinted frequently while others haven’t been reprinted in years (and forgotten in time)

Reprints in Yu-Gi-Oh are something similar to the reprints Pokémon does for Trainer cards or Energy cards (for making a comparison)

Current mechanics are complex (imo) and turns can take an eternity … About scripture-length … It’s ironic that there’s a stereotype that affirms that card players (Mostly Yu-Gi-Oh) don’t know how to read or have awful reading comprehesion.

The Jump Festa 1999 Blue-Eyes White Dragon … :rofl:
Leaving the jokes aside … I’d say it depends … Blue-Eyes is a card whose variants tends to be expensive … If you don’t care about the rarity, I’d say that pick the one that you like the most or the cheapest variant.

Absolutely true … people have known different species of Pokémon in different media that are not TCG: Anime, Manga, Merchandising and, mostly, videogames (being from the main series or spin-offs). Yu-Gi-Oh depends a lot of the card game and, unfortunately, doesn’t have several ways people can know the cards (only manga & merchandising) and there’re a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh cards most people don’t have idea that they existed (mostly with cards that haven’t appeared in anime).

I think this is the reason there’re Species Collectors of Pokémon creatures. Something I’ve learnt by interacting with some of them is that there’s a dedicated collector for each creature (even the most forgotten one). Ironically I haven’t met a Yu-Gi-Oh Species Collector yet (I collect Dark Magician Girl cards)

What I’ve seen regarding prices of Yu-Gi-Oh cards is that the ones that tends to be volatile are:

  • Cards that are competitive (such as Yummys) in highest rarity (even lower rarities can be more expensive than expected)
  • Portuguese & Asian-English

That being said … the fact chase cards have increased in the last years, it’s true and false (at the same time) that are not nearly to extent Pokémon prices. Usually Yu-Gi-Oh highest western rarity cards don’t tend to value more than $200 USD … unless it’s a special variant or Asian-English highest rarity variant of some cards.

Have you heard of “Rush Duel”??? … Over Rush Rares can be very expensive …

:meowth:

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Same i enjoy testing decks in YGO pro constantly and learning how interruptions disrupt combo breakpoints and how to play around it.

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Things I loved about yugioh:

  • playing my favorite cards from the show.
  • Finding a fun strategy to victory.
  • the speed of the game - FAST. :fire:

Things I hated about yugioh:

  • My favorite cards rarely being as cool as on the show.
  • Having my fun strategy to victory nerfed by bans to an imbalanced game.
  • The speed of the game. :coffin:
  • ‘Bro’ culture.
  • Paying a lot for cards.
  • Having those expensive cards crash because of reprints.

I feel like overall, as new sets were added, there was far less continuity than pokemon. Pokemon’s smaller creature count keeps some familiar elements from one set to the next, even if the overall mechanics don’t involve them, there will always be another charizard, but dammit! There will NEVER be a great Dark Magician…