In a spectacular display of trading card game fervor, 2025 has proved to be the year Pokémon seized the grading crown, firmly leaving sports cards in its rainbow-hued dust. Fueled by a wave of nostalgia, strategic collaborations, and the enduring love for pocket monsters, Pokémon cards now make up nearly the entire leaderboard in the submissions for grading, setting a new precedent for both collectors and authenticators.
According to the latest revelations from GemRate, an analytics firm tracking card grading trends, Pokémon has launched into the stratosphere of grading submissions, with a whopping 97 of the top 100 cards submitted to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) belonging to this beloved franchise. The trend doesn’t stop at Pokémon; non-sports and trading card games (TCG) have surged ahead, composing 59% of all graded submissions among the big four authenticators during the first six months of the year.
This year alone has seen a dazzling total of 7.2 million TCG and non-sports cards graded from January through June, marking a significant 70% rise from the previous year. In stark, sepia-toned contrast, sports card submissions have totalled 5.1 million, experiencing a 9% decline over the same timeframe. Numbers never lie, and it appears that Pikachu, Charizard, and their ilk are zapping the competition with electrifying efficiency.
Leading the charge in this cardboard stampede is the Japanese Iono’s Wattrel Battle Partners Promo No. 232, the most graded single card of the year thus far, with over 45,600 copies receiving the graded seal of authenticity. Yet the true heavyweight champion, staying true to its mascot potential, is Pikachu. With a jaw-dropping 345,000 Pikachu cards having undergone grading in 2025, this iconic electric mouse has firmly bolted itself into the annals of trading card history. Chief among them is the fabulously stylish “Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat” from the Van Gogh Museum collaboration, which not only became PSA’s most-submitted Pokémon card ever, at nearly 84,000 copies but has also fetched staggering prices of over $900 for Gem Mint 10 examples. This hat-wearing rodent has clearly short-circuited the market with its cultural cachet and cuteness factor.
The sports cards domain, meanwhile, is struggling to keep pace, with only three sports-related entries making it into PSA’s top 100 list. The 2024 Panini Prizm Jayden Daniels rookie card, the 2024 Panini Instant Caitlin Clark WNBA ROY card, and an additional Jayden Daniels card from Donruss managed to make the cut, each accruing submissions between 8,800 to 10,500—a mere ripple in the pond compared to the tidal wave of Pokémon cards.
June’s statistics consolidated this TCG-fired juggernaut, where trading card games and non-sports locked in 63% of the month’s total submissions. In a demonstration of raw grading power, PSA alone scrutinized 911,000 cards in this category, eclipsing the entire sports card sum of 743,000 across all four major firms by a decisive margin. Uncle Sam might have commended it: “Gotta grade ’em all.”
Moreover, one grading company, CGC Cards, has capitalized spectacularly on this trend. Riding high on Pokémon’s paper chariot, CGC graded 2.18 million cards in 2025 thus far—a figure nearing its entire 2024 tally. Of these staggering numbers, 1.8 million were TCG or non-sports, further proving Pokémon’s enchanting hold over the card-collecting cosmos.
Meanwhile, Beckett’s story is one of tortoise-like struggle in this race, slumping to fourth place among notable graders. Out of the 366,000 cards Beckett has blessed with its official stamp in 2025, a hefty 214,000 were Pokémon or TCG-related, showing that despite its challenges, even Beckett cannot ignore the siren call of Pokémon.
Part of this Pokémon power-up can be attributed to PSA’s partnership with GameStop, a commercial teaming-up precisely as savvy as it sounds. Since its launch in October, this collaboration has flooded PSA with over 1 million grading submissions, acting as a turbo boost for their analytics and a lifeline for GameStop’s retail relevance.
On top of these seismic shifts on the grading front, Pokémon’s retail dominion remains as strong as ever. New releases vanish in an eyeblink, leaving shop owners scrambling to restock as fervent collectors queue up for these much-coveted cards. Limited-per-customer notices are plastered across stores, keeping tempers in check as fans eagerly clutch their allocations. As it stands, with its cards selling out, collectors clamoring and prices soaring, Pokémon’s supremacy in the card-crazy world shows no signs of waning.
