Pokémon, the highest-grossing media franchise as of 2024, released a mobile game recently taking the world by storm. The game is called Pokémon TCG Pocket, and it has more than 30,000,000 million user downloads and has accumulated $200,000,000 million in revenue. This new game quickly became a fan favorite among people and brought more popularity back into the Pokémon card game.

Pokémon TCG came out in 1996. The point of the cards is to buy packs at stores and pull cards that have characters from Pokémon on them. Using a certain amount of cards, a deck player builds a deck to use in battle against another deck. Progressively, Pokémon would release new expansions of cards with new Pokémon from the games. Artists illustrate these cards, some of the cards are rare and have more detail and art to them. This went on continuously for years and worked for Pokémon.

With the increasing presence of online gaming over the years, Pokémon had to try and keep up with it. When it comes to the card game, they have struggled. Pokémon released a game called Pokémon TCG Online. It is a game where packs players can open packs on a computer and battle online. To get these packs though, plates must scan a QR code on a green or white card pulled from packs bought at stores. This means that to get packs on the game, a person would have to buy a pack at the store. So those who want to enjoy an online Pokémon TCG game have to pay to win, which isn’t favored among people who play video games. Eventually, the player base was very low and the game died off.

So why is the new game so popular; what does it do differently? First and foremost, it’s a mobile game. Most people have a phone and can easily download the free game, which is easily accessible compared to a computer. The game also gives free packs to everyone. Every 12 hours, a person can open a new pack and get new cards. Rare cards are harder to pull but they look better. That implementation of showing what cards players can get and at what odds is very similar to a lot of phone games with high player bases, one that excites players and gives them the chance to gamble without paying money. There is also the battle system, which is user-friendly and easy to learn. It’s welcome to all ages and fans of Pokémon and currently is getting updated frequently. The new Pokémon TCG Pocket game is user-friendly, entertaining, free and accessible. Anyone can pick it up at any time and enjoy it.