Pokémon Card Market Report — Q2 2026

Let's start with the headline number, because it's a good one: the CardTrack Pokémon Index climbed 13.6% this quarter across the 7,037 cards we track closely, and that's a genuinely strong three months for the hobby. But if you've been checking prices day to day, you'll know it didn't feel like a straight line up. The gains were front-loaded, and the most recent 30 days actually saw Pokémon cool off by 8.1% — a reminder that this hobby moves in bursts, not escalators. Zoom out to the full quarter, though, and the story is still a good one.

How does that stack up against everything else? Pretty favorably. Over that same recent window, Magic: The Gathering was up 2.9%, One Piece Card Game gained 1.6%, Yu-Gi-Oh! ticked up 0.7%, and Disney Lorcana edged 1.2% higher — all of them quieter, steadier months compared to Pokémon's swings. And against the "real" asset classes, Pokémon's quarter looks even better: gold slipped 11.5%, Bitcoin got hit hard at -21.3%, and even the S&P 500's solid 3.2% gain doesn't come close to the Index's overall quarterly move. Cardboard had a moment.

The individual card stories are where it gets fun. Altaria from the BW Black Star Promos more than tripled, up 235.2% to $204, and the original Base Set Pikachu wasn't far behind at +208.7%, now sitting at $250 — proof that nostalgia-grade cards can still catch fire out of nowhere. Simisage from Black Bolt nearly tripled too, up 191.8% on a modest $23 price tag, showing you don't need a big name to see a big move. On the flip side, it wasn't all good news: Toxtricity from the Mega Evolution promos dropped 55.4% to $35, and Expedition Base Set Blastoise gave back nearly half its value. Hype cuts both ways.

Bottom line — this was a real quarter, not just noise, but the cooldown of the last month is worth watching closely. If you want to see where the money's actually moving card by card, Pokémon prices and the CardTrack 100 are the places to dig in, and if you're chasing the big fish, our most valuable Pokémon cards list is worth a look too. Here's hoping Q3 keeps some of that spark alive.