Tomorrow, February 27, marks exactly 30 years since Pokemon Red and Green launched on the Game Boy in Japan. The franchise that started as a bug-collecting simulator for Japanese schoolchildren is now the highest-grossing media property in human history. Not just games. Not just entertainment. All media, ever. $288 billion in lifetime revenue. More than Star Wars. More than Marvel. More than Mickey Mouse.
And right now, today, grown adults are lined up at Walmart trying to buy trading cards before the kids those cards were designed for get out of school.
The Numbers Are Absurd
Pokemon isn't just big. It's a category of one. The Pokemon Company pulled in $2.9 billion in net sales for fiscal year 2025, a 38% jump year-over-year. The TCG alone has sold over 75 billion cards worldwide. Pokemon TCG Pocket, a mobile card game, generated $647 million in 2025. A digital version of the cards.
The broader trading card market is projected at $8 billion in 2026. Pokemon owns a massive chunk of that. And the 30th anniversary is pushing prices even higher. Vintage Wizards of the Coast era cards are up 30-50% heading into this milestone year. Modern singles have corrected 20-30% from the 2021 mania peak, but sealed product and vintage keeps climbing.
This is no longer a kids' hobby. This is an asset class.
Walmart Pokemon Week Is Happening Right Now
As of today, Walmart is running a full "Pokemon Week" event through March 1. Exclusive TCG drops every morning at 10 AM ET for Walmart+ members. Ascended Heroes Elite Trainer Boxes. Scarlet and Violet Destined Rivals Booster Bundles. Deals on plush, games, and collectibles starting at $14.99.
Walmart+ members get early access. But even membership doesn't guarantee you get anything. Drops sell out in minutes. And there are already dedicated reseller guides breaking down exact profit margins per product. The Pokemon Day 2026 Collection retails at $14.99. Resellers expect $25-35 on eBay within the first month. That's $7-17 profit after fees per box. Scale that to a cart full of five (Walmart's new purchase limit) and you've got a business.
That limit exists because of what happened without it.
The Fights. The Camping. The Purchase Limits.
In January 2025, a physical fight broke out inside a Costco over Prismatic Evolutions boxes. Employees had to physically intervene. The Umbreon ex Special Illustration Rare from that set was selling for $1,500+ on eBay.
Go back to May 2021 and it was worse. Target pulled all trading cards from stores nationwide after a man was assaulted in a Brookfield, Wisconsin parking lot over Pokemon cards. Four men jumped a fifth as he left the store. Before that, Target had already tried limiting purchases to one item per day because adults were camping outside overnight.
Walmart imposed a five-item-per-visit limit in November 2025 after a TikTok went viral showing a scalper buying $3,000+ worth of Pokemon cards in a single trip. Target currently caps purchases at two items per customer per day. Individual store managers can drop that to one.
These policies exist because adults turned a children's product into a speculative market.
The Reseller Machine
There are entire ecosystems built around flipping Pokemon cards. Resell Calendar publishes detailed guides on every Pokemon drop with projected profit per SKU. Discord groups coordinate which stores are restocking and when. YouTube "Pokemon opening" channels. There are dozens of them with millions of subscribers. They've turned the act of opening a $5 pack of cards into content that drives demand, which drives scarcity, which drives prices, which drives more content.
It's a perfect flywheel. And kids are on the outside of it.
A ten-year-old can't camp at Walmart at 6 AM on a Tuesday. Can't pay for Walmart+. Can't refresh a browser at 10 AM sharp during school hours. Can't compete with a reseller running five browser tabs and a bot.
The kids who Pokemon was literally made for are the ones who can't get the cards.
But the Franchise Deserves the Celebration
Here's the tension. Pokemon is genuinely one of the great creative achievements in entertainment history. 30 years. Over 1,000 species designed. Hundreds of games. A card game with competitive depth that rivals chess in strategic complexity. A community that spans every continent and every age group.
The 30th anniversary lineup is massive. FireRed and LeafGreen are coming to Nintendo Switch tomorrow. The first-ever LEGO Pokemon sets drop tomorrow. Five sets: Pikachu, Eevee, Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise. A Pokemon Presents broadcast airs at 9 AM ET. A Super Bowl ad aired three weeks ago featuring Lady Gaga and Charles Leclerc.
This is a franchise that earned its moment.
The Real Problem
The original Pokemon kids are now 35 to 40 years old. They have disposable income. They have nostalgia. And they have access to tools and communities that let them treat every card drop like a stock trade.
Pokemon's success as a collectible has priced out its core audience. That's not a failure of the franchise. It's what happens when a beloved property becomes a financial instrument. And no purchase limit or membership gate is going to fix that tension.
Happy 30th, Pokemon. You taught a generation to catch 'em all. They took it literally.