I’ll add some info on the Japanese side. While researching for this article I came across this research paper. Basically it outlines the history of Pokemon including the TCG and has some vital print run information.
Here’s some copy paste from the article:
- 87 million Pokemon cards were shipped between 20 October 1996 and 31 March 1997, this includes Base Set, Jungle and promo cards
- After 1 year, 180 million Pokemon cards were shipped
- Between April 1997 and March 1998 - 499 Million cards were shipped
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was 2 Billion Japanese Pokemon cards in circulation before the English release in 1999. So you could use that info to subtract from the total or use it to predict equivalent English print numbers but I would suspect that the English print would follow more along the WOTC model rather than Media Factory.
@gottaketchumall I like that 2 million 2 Player decks sold info I reckon that could be a good insight into general figures, pity it is a bit vague could $10 2 player sets mean spread across the 5 decks? Also I am assuming that these figures are US only too as it seems low if including international releases of English