The year is 2025, the world still recovering from the fervor of the previous year, and Pokémon cards have officially achieved a status even Charizard would be proud of. A report from GemRate indicates that Pokémon cards have not only taken over the world of third-party grading but have practically left everything else in the dust. In a staggering revelation, 97 of the top 100 most-graded cards at the prestigious PSA belong to the Pokémon franchise. It seems Pikachu and friends have not only captured our hearts but also our wallets.
The non-sports and Trading Card Game (TCG) category has genuinely dazzled the grading scene, accounting for a mammoth 59% of all submissions made across the four major authenticators in just the first half of the year. Not bad for a card game born in the late ’90s!
From January to June, an eye-watering 7.2 million TCG and non-sports cards found their way to grading companies, marking an impressive 70% year-on-year increase. In contrast, the sports card industry seems to have pulled a hamstring, with submissions totalling just 5.1 million—a 9% descent on the slippery slope of the grading industry.
The pièce de résistance of graded cards this year is the Japanese Iono’s Wattrel Battle Partners Promo No. 232, boasting over 45,600 copies submitted. More impressively ubiquitous, however, is the ever-charming Pikachu, with a whopping 345,000 graded examples just in 2025. The “Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat” card, born from a collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum, has particularly stolen the spotlight, achieving nearly 84,000 graded submissions. It stands as PSA’s most-submitted Pokémon card ever! Even with its vast availability, PSA 10 specimens of this card have recently commanded prices exceeding an astonishing $900—apparently, the electric mouse still holds quite a charge.
While Pokémon might have walked away with the grading trophy, sports cards have been left to their own devices on the bleachers. Only three humbly climbed their way into PSA’s top 100: the 2024 Panini Prizm Jayden Daniels rookie card, the Caitlin Clark WNBA ROY card from Panini Instant, and a second Jayden Daniels card from Donruss. Submission counts for each ranged between 8,800 and 10,500—a paltry showing compared to Pikachu and pals.
Cheeky data from June only bolsters this narrative, with TCG and non-sports cards comprising 63% of submissions. PSA led this charge by grading an unbelievable 911,000 of such cards, leaving sports cards—with a total of 743,000 across all four grading bigwigs—in desperate need of some stamina training.
CGC Cards has gleefully hopped onto the Pokémon bandwagon, grading 2.18 million cards so far in 2025. This is nearly reaching its entire grading count from the year prior. Among these, over 1.8 million were TCG or non-sports. Meanwhile, Beckett’s decline should ring plenty of alarm bells as they sink to fourth place in the major graders’ hierarchy. Out of the 366,000 cards they’ve graded this year, around 214,000 bore the colorful creatures of Pokémon.
PSA’s leaps and bounds in the industry can be attributed to their ongoing bromance with GameStop. Since aligning their ambitions back in October, this partnership has driven more than a million grading submissions, pouring gasoline on an already vibrant Pokémon bonfire.
Not to miss all the fun, Pokémon’s retail show is undoubtedly part of this big beast. The overwhelming demand has led to sellouts, and reluctant retailers have been forced to enforce draconian purchase limits per customer. New releases are vanishing from the shelves faster than you can say “Thunderbolt,” illustrating a demand fever that shows no sign of cooling.
With its powerful grip on consumers, an unbroken chain of unprecedented sales, and a spruce showing at grading submissions even beyond the infamous sports cards, this global craze has reached a level even Team Rocket couldn’t undermine. Pokémon’s reign seems immune to the passage of time or fleeting trends, etching its position in the annals of trading card history. This high-stakes game truly is a testament to the timeless allure of those critters and their boundless capacity for generating both nostalgia and newfound obsession.