Fond memories of swapping Pokémon cards in the school playground? Think you’ve got the Trainer skills to be the very best, like no one ever was? Or perhaps you’re just curious why everyone’s chatting about Charizard lately!
Whatever type of Pokémon fan you might be, Pokémon TCG Pocket brings the joy of collecting and battling Pokémon cards to your iPhone or iPad. Break open some booster packs, build a winning deck and collect ‘em all!
Why it’s popular
Pokémon TCG Pocket takes a fresh approach to the Pokémon card game, while still keeping all the things that have made it a phenomenon over the last 25-plus years. Just like with real cards, you get the satisfaction and surprise of tearing open booster packs in the app to discover the random selection of cards inside.
If you’re lucky enough to find a rare shiny, or one of the beautiful variants with artwork that covers the whole card, you can admire your collection up close by rotating cards on the screen, then arrange them into customisable binders and display boards to show off your favourites to the world.
As well as letting you collect cards to your heart’s content, you can also create decks from 20 of your cards to take on solo challenges and online Pokémon battles against other Trainers from around the globe. Compared to the original card game, Pokémon TCG Pocket’s simplified gameplay makes the rules even easier to learn, and battles only take a handful of minutes to finish. Win battles to level up and unlock more booster packs and other rewards!
Getting started
The first thing you’ll need are some cards! Open different types of booster packs for the chance to find unique cards, and be sure to check back each time your pack stamina recovers to crack another pack.
You can also use Pack Hourglasses obtained from levelling up, completing missions and the shop to instantly reduce the wait. Check out the Wonder Pick menu for your chance to nab a single card from other players’ opened packs – a great way to hunt down some rare pulls!
Once you have some cards in your collection, head to the My Cards page and then hit Decks to form your own line-up of Pokémon and helpful Trainer cards – including items, tools and supporters – to take into battle. Not sure what to pick? Hit the Auto-build option to craft a deck around your preferred elemental type, or try one of the ready-made Theme Decks.
With a party of Pokémon in hand, you can fight against other players in Versus matches or take on Solo challenges from the Battle tab. The series of Solo fights will take you from learning the basics to mastering more advanced strategies, and are a quick way to earn more cards while you’re starting out. Don’t forget to add some friends and like their collections to earn some extra bonuses.
Did you know?
The Pokémon Trading Card Game was first released in Japan in 1996, a few months after the earliest video-games in the series: Pokémon Red and Green. The TCG’s original 102 cards, known as the Base Set, were then translated into English in 1999. As of April 2024, more than 64 billion physical Pokémon cards had been printed, with almost half of that number being printed during the previous three years alone. There are now more than 18,000 unique Pokémon cards in existence – making it a lot more convenient to carry your collection in your pocket virtually!
Alongside Pokémon TCG Pocket, franchise creators The Pokémon Company have released the Pokémon TCG Live app, a faithful digital translation of the original trading card game. The world’s best Pokémon TCG Trainers compete every year at the invitation-only Pokémon World Championships, which celebrated their 10th anniversary in 2024.