Trading cards are poised to create Target’s next billion-dollar category

Gomez said these trading card games like Pokémon, combined with the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 game console, drove growth within its hardlines categories last quarter. Second-quarter net sales in hardlines, which includes toys and electronics, grew about 6% from 2024 to 2025. “Trend-forward tech accessories like brightly colored headphones and phone cases and toys priced under $20” have also helped shape growth, Gomez said.

Target’s success in trading card games reflects what the company hopes to repeat throughout the business. Its executives hope to deliver on the trends of the moment, like when it released Taylor Swift’s new book last year or when it taps celebrities like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to promote their brands.

“One notable area of strength within Fun 101 [hardlines] was in trading cards where we’ve been leaning in, given the cultural relevance and wide appeal to young fans and adult collectors alike,” Gomez said. Target is now calling its hardlines category “Fun 101,” focusing on making that segment of the business more “trend-forward” and “culturally relevant.”

Overall, so far this year, strategic trading card game sales — which excludes sports trading cards — are up 101% from last year and represent about 10% of total toy sales in general, according to Juli Lennett, vp and toy industry adviser for Circana. Sports trading cards are up 48% year to date. Trading card sales on Walmart’s online marketplace soared 200% between February 2024 and June 2025, with Pokémon card sales growing over 10 times year over year, the retailer told Axios.

“It is being driven by Pokémon, but there are other trading card games that are also performing well,” like Magic the Gathering and One Piece, Lennett said. “There’s a lot of room to bring additional adults into the category. Trading cards are one of those ways to bring them in, because there’s some nostalgic interest in trading cards, and a lot of those people who are buying trading cards are buying them as an investment.”

She said it’s unclear exactly why the category has doubled in size, though she added that social media has helped drive more interest in these games — and collectibles, in general — from adults. This likely isn’t about one particular viral moment or release, but rather an overall surge in interest in the category.

“[Pokémon has] had relatively the same number of new sets released; they typically do around five or six per year, and it’s remained that way for about the last three years. … It’s not like they’re releasing twice as many new versions of cards,” she said. “The only explanation that I can come up with from the data is that they are bringing new buyers into the ecosystem, and also, the tried-and-true buyers are buying more.”

Bryan Gildenberg, founder and CEO of Confluencer Commerce, said that Target’s ability to align itself with a growing category is a good thing, but he doubts the growth will benefit the company in the long term, considering the company isn’t doing anything particularly unique in the way it merchandises the cards.

“Just search for Target trading cards [on TikTok],” Gildenberg said. “It’s a very funny experience, because the overwhelming amount of social media content [is] like 40-year-old dudes wandering around the trading card section of Target, which is not normally their core guest.”

Still, Gildenberg said the category shows how good Target can be at stocking up for big launch events throughout its assortment.

“I don’t know that this category in and of itself is a sustainable bright spot,” Gildenberg said. “What will be a sustainable bright spot for Target over time is the ability to do this kind of thing more consistently, which is to catch the wave at the right time and become a reliable distributor for fragmented trends. That would allow them to become a destination for what’s new, what’s cool and what’s stylish. That sort of meta-competency is important.”