In 2025, the world of collectible card grading has undergone a tectonic shift as Pokémon cards leapfrogged over the traditional kingpins of cardboard—sports cards—to plant their electric flag firmly atop the heap of graded submissions. “Pokémon’s in town, and sports cards better step aside,” chuckles a collector as he admires his pristine Pikachu card through its crystal-clear slab.
According to GemRate, the trusty yardstick in the niche world of card grading metrics, Pokémon cards now account for a staggering 97 out of the top 100 most-graded cards at PSA, one of the industry’s premier grading companies. Even avid sports enthusiasts can’t ignore this tectonic shift from the centuries-old tradition of baseball cards to these pocket-sized monsters.
A deeper dive into the numbers reveals that during the first half of 2025, the four titans of third-party grading saw 7.2 million trading card game (TCG) and non-sports cards cross their desks—a jaw-dropping 70% increase from the previous year. Sports cards, meanwhile, managed a modest 5.1 million, nabbing a 9% decline that would leave even the most stoic quarterback shaking his helmeted head in disbelief.
The pièce de résistance of graded cards this year isn’t a grand slam slugger or a record-breakingly swift runner. It’s the Japanese Iono’s Wattrel Battle Partners Promo No. 232, leading the grading parade with more than 45,600 copies graded. And yet, despite its soaring popularity, it is the franchise’s darling, Pikachu, that electrifies the market, totaling an astonishing 345,000 graded copies in 2025. The shining star among them? The famous “Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat” from the Van Gogh Museum collaboration, a card so in-demand that nearly 84,000 have passed through PSA’s scrupulous hands. Despite its proliferation, PSA 10 examples haven’t lost their zest, commanding prices upward of $900.
The excitement surrounding Pokémon cards is causing sports cards to settle into a quiet, unassuming background role. Only three sports cards made a valiant dash into PSA’s top 100 list: the 2024 Panini Prizm Jayden Daniels rookie card, a 2024 Panini Instant Caitlin Clark WNBA Rookie of the Year card, and an additional Jayden Daniels card by Donruss. Each sported detail on these cards saw not even the attendance of 10,500 submissions—a hint as subtle as a nudge about sports cards’ relegation in the grand carnival of card collecting.
June’s submission records merely underscored the trend further: 63% of all graded submissions that month were TCG and non-sports-related, with PSA alone heroically grading a mind-boggling 911,000 under this category. That’s more than a hill and a half of sports cards, including all four major graders muscling together with their own total of 743,000.
Elsewhere in the kingdom of card grading, CGC Cards, brimming with sheer exuberance, channeled the Pokémon wave with the kind of prowess whales deploy in the water. The company, a rising star in the grading cosmos, has managed to grade almost as many cards in 2025 alone as it did through the entirety of 2024, clocking in at 2.18 million. Of this hefty sum, over 1.8 million cards were crammed into the TCG or non-sports bins.
On the flip side, Beckett—the grand old sage of the grading game—finds the winds blowing in an altogether less favorable direction. Now ranked fourth among the major players, it’s stroller weather at Beckett, as they account for just 366,000 cards so far in 2025, with 214,000 of these bearing the Pikachu-proud TCG or non-sports label.
PSA’s tidal surge partially owes its success to a strategic power-play partnership with GameStop, a merger celebrated with near-criminal enthusiasm by collectors as they see upwards of 1 million submissions already ticked off their grading bucket list since October.
Collecting hasn’t been this thrilling since Bieber’s haircut auctioned car hoodies. Pokémon’s omnipresence is stirring up a whirlwind of demand that has boxes shimmering off shelves faster than a Gengar after last call. Retail restrictions abound, with supplies thinning and collectors clutching their cards as coveted treasure. Even as Pokémon Graders tap away feverishly into the night, the frenzy shows no sign of cracking. Pokémon isn’t loosening its grip anytime soon. Just like the eternal ketchup stain upon a beloved Charizard booster, its impact and zest for grandeur remain indelibly entrenched.
