Pokémon TCG Pocket Player Decline Explained

Pokémon TCG Pocket is still huge, but fewer players are opening packs

Pokémon TCG Pocket remains a major mobile success, although its audience has contracted sharply over the past year. The digital card-collecting game averaged approximately 23 million monthly active users between April and June 2026.

That figure comes from DeNA’s latest financial reports. DeNA co-develops and operates the game with its partners. The same quarter in 2025 averaged about 39 million monthly users, based on reporting from Japanese gaming industry site Gamebiz. That represents a fall of roughly 41 per cent.

Artwork of Darkrai from the Pokémon TCG Pitch Black expansion

Garfield blows a bubble containing Doctor Manhattan in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream.

Three pristine copies of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow for the Game Boy, that just sold for a record-breaking $2M.

Pokémon TCG Pocket Pulsing Aura screenshot

DeNA wants to improve retention

The decline is not accelerating at the same rate each quarter. The previous quarter averaged 24 million monthly active users, so the game lost approximately one million monthly players quarter-on-quarter.

DeNA is now concentrating on getting players to return more often, improving retention and increasing activity. Potential tools include limited-time events, fresh card expansions, special booster packs, login rewards, competitive activities and improvements to features such as trading. The company has not detailed the full programme, but it has specifically identified events and promotions as part of its plans.

A graphic showing an array of Pokemon card in Pokemon TCG Pocket. There’s a Moltres, Gardevoir, and more.

The newest expansion, Ruler of the Skies, launched in late July and added another group of cards to collect. Its headline card is Mega Rayquaza ex, joined by Mega Gallade ex and Mega Metagross ex among the new Mega Evolution cards.

Pokemon TCG Pocket Ruler of the Skies trailer

The decline is affecting DeNA’s games business

The shrinking audience is also visible in DeNA’s financial results. Its games division recorded revenue of $76.88 million for the quarter, down from $114.98 million a year earlier—a 33 per cent decrease.

Profit in the division fell by 62 per cent, from $64.16 million to $24.14 million. DeNA identified Pokémon TCG Pocket as the main reason for the year-over-year change.

Why are some players losing interest?

Players have offered several explanations for the softer engagement, although DeNA has not attributed the decline to one specific issue.

One common complaint concerns the odds of receiving rare cards. Some players have renewed calls for improved pull rates, while others are frustrated by opening repeated packs containing cards they already own.

Trading has been another point of friction since the feature arrived in January 2025. Developers later changed parts of the system, including removing the unpopular Trade Tokens, but restrictions remain. Trading is limited to friends, and there are still rules governing which cards can be exchanged.

Players have also requested quality-of-life improvements, including better ways to manage duplicate cards and greater flexibility for the pack points earned by opening boosters.

Logan Paul holds a perfectly graded CoroCoro magazine during a Pokemon livestream.

The Cattiva monster in Palworld, as depicted by the trading card game.

A large audience remains

Despite losing more than 40 per cent of its monthly audience over the past year, Pokémon TCG Pocket is not short of players. Around 23 million people still use it each month.

For DeNA, the immediate challenge is turning that enormous remaining audience into a more consistent community—one that returns regularly and continues opening packs between major updates.

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