Pokémon Day: 30 Years of the World’s Most Powerful Licensing Machine

Few brands in history have achieved what Pokémon has achieved.

With over $103.6 billion in licensed retail sales and $12 billion generated in 2024 alone, Pokémon stands as the highest-grossing media franchise of all time — built not on a portfolio of brands, but on one singular IP.

In this episode of Born to License, we unpack the strategy behind that dominance.

We explore:

• How Pokémon leverages generational loyalty
• The role of scarcity in driving collectible demand
• Why collaborations like Oreo and the Van Gogh Museum became cultural moments
• The record-breaking $5M+ Pikachu card sale and what it signals
• How Pokémon continues to evolve while protecting its core identity

This episode is more than a celebration of Pokémon — it’s a blueprint for building an evergreen, emotionally resonant, and commercially powerful brand.

If you work in licensing, retail, entertainment, or brand strategy, this is essential listening.

🎙 Born to License – Hosted by David Born

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Transcript

Happy Pokemon Day, everybody. I'm recording this on Friday, February 27 and 30 years ago today, Pokemon launched in Japan. Three decades and this brand hasn't just survived, it has dominated. I'm David Born, this is born to License, and I'm coming to you from Australia where I'm getting ready for Melbourne Toy Fair, which by the time this episode airs, will be off and racing. I'm genuinely excited. It's going to be a fantastic few days to talking all things licensing with some great people from across the industry. But before all of that, I want to take a moment to talk about a brand that in my view, is one of the greatest licensing machines the world has ever seen. Now, let's start with the numbers, because they are genuinely staggering. Pokemon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time. 

 Not Disney, not Star wars, not Marvel. Pokemon. With over $103.6 billion in licensed retail sales across its lifetime, it has surpassed every other entertainment property in history when it comes to merchandise and licensing. In 2024 alone, Pokemon generated $12 billion in license retail sales. That's a $1.2 billion increase on the year before, according to License Global's annual Top Global Licensors report. That makes Pokemon the seventh largest licensor in the entire world. And here's the detail that matters most to those of us in the industry. That ranking is achieved with a single brand, not a portfolio of dozens of IP like Disney, Warner Brothers, Discovery. Just Pokemon, one brand, $12 billion. Let that sink in. They're also the number one toy property globally for four consecutive years. And in 2024, they were the only toy brand in the world to surpass $1 billion in sales. 

 Pokemon Go has been downloaded over 1 billion times since launching in 2016. And the Pokemon trading card game is now available in over 90 countries and regions across 16 languages. In the 202223 fiscal year alone, they printed a record 11.9 billion cards. That was approximately 18% of every Pokemon card ever made in a single. What makes Pokemon such a unique licensing driver? Well, in my opinion, it's three things. Generational reach, emotional connection, and scarcity mechanics. My nephew is absolutely Pokemon obsessive. He has his Pokemon collection framed in his bedroom. The brand captures kids at a young age and never lets go. Those same kids who were trading cards in the late 90s are now adults with real purchasing power and they're still collecting. For example, my nephew's dad, my brother in law, is equally obsessed. 

 That's generational brand loyalty that very few properties can claim and the licensing collaborations this brand pulls off, they are world class. Let me give you two that stand out for me personally. The first is the Pokemon and oreo collaboration in 2021. It was a masterclass in scarcity driven licensing. Oreo released a limited edition run of cookies, each embossed with one of six 16 different Pokemon characters. And one of them, the Mew cookie, became so rare that individual biscuits were being listed on ebay for tens of thousands of dollars. Multiple sources reported listings as high as $30,000 for a biscuit. That is the power of the Pokemon brand applied to a fast moving consumer product. And it is a lesson every licensing professional should study. Then in 2023, Pokemon parted with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to mark the museum's 50th anniversary. 

 The collaboration was built around genuine cultural connection. Van Gogh was deeply inspired by Japanese art and Pokemon is one of Japan's most iconic exports. Six original artworks were created, Pokemon characters were woven into Van Gogh's most famous paintings and a limited edition promo card, Pikachu with gray felt hat, was offered to visitors who completed a museum scavenger hunt. The demand was so intense that the museum had to pull the promo card from on site distribution entirely due to crowd safety concerns. A life licensing collaboration that crossed art, culture, education and collectibility all in one. It was really extraordinary. And now, just in time for Pokemon's 30th birthday, we've had the biggest single trading card sale in history. Eleven days ago, Logan Paul sold his PSA Grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card through Golden Auctions for $16.492 million. 

 It's officially confirmed by Guinness World Records as the most expensive trading card ever sold at an auction. Not just the most expensive Pokemon card, the most expensive trading card of any kind ever. That record previously belonged to a Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant jewel card that sold for just under $13 million in August 2025. The Pikachu illustrator was originally distributed in 1998 as a prize for a Pokemon illustrating contest run by Corocoro Comic in Japan. Only 39 copies were originally distributed. Paul's card is the only one in existence to receive a perfect PSA grade 10 gem, mint condition, making it entirely unique even among that already extraordinary group. He purchased it in a private sale in Dubai in 2021 for 5.275 million, a Guinness World Record at the time and has now more than tripled his investment in five years. 

 He personally handed the card to the winning bidder on a live YouTube stream as confetti rained down. This isn't just a collector's story. It's proof that Pokemon has entered the same conversation as fine art and rare artifacts in the alternative investment world. Thirty years in and Pokemon is more commercially powerful than ever before. It's a brand that works across food, fashion, fine art, gaming and now the highest echelons of the collectibles world. For those of us in licensing, there is no better case study in what a truly generational, emotionally resonant IP can achieve. So as this episode goes live I'll be walking around Melbourne Toy Fair. If you're here, come find me. 

 I'd love to connect and as always you can find me on LinkedIn and Instagram, subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for this podcast and watch on YouTube for a lot of great content or reach out to the team at hello@borntolicense.com wishing you a happy Pokemon day. I'm David Born and this is Born to License.