You might have already noticed that 2026 is Pokémon‘s 30th anniversary. To mark this, it’s long been known that The Pokémon Company is intending to release a special 30th Celebration set for the trading card game, but the company has been very close-lipped about when. We now know, following the official announcement, that the celebratory collection will initially release internationally, both in Japan and the rest of the world, on September 16, with further drops to come throughout the rest of 2026.
PokéBeach was first with the news (as ever), reporting that the Japanese version of the anniversary set, called Celebration Collection, will be six-card booster packs, in which every pack will feature one of 30 different Pikachu cards, and all the cards included will be foils. As in, no bulk.
The set was originally teased on February 27 (Pokémon Day) in a brief, very vague aside during the lackluster Pokémon Presents. It was extremely confusing, showing images of cards from across all three decades of the trading card game, and then two extraordinarily garish cards featuring Mew and Mewtwo. This led to hopes that the set might be a collection of reprints of classic cards, although I suspected otherwise at the time. However, it looks like I was wrong! The set will, according to PokéBeach, contain 30 classic cards with a special “30th” stamp and an upgrade where appropriate to a foil version. And yes, of course one of them will be yet another reprint of the Base Set Charizard. Expect it to be worth stupid money.
Then there are the 30 Pikachu cards, with one in every pack. On top of that, there’s a new rarity called Futuristic Rare, which appear to be those, er, bold neon designs. The number of these is unknown, but they will “depict Pokémon in striking artwork evocative of hope toward an unknown future.”
The good news is this will be the first time a set launches internationally at the same time as it does in Japan. Usually there’s a two-to-three-month delay, with the more frequently released Japanese sets consolidated into larger sets for the rest of the world. So everywhere should see these cards come September 16.
What’s most surprising is that international versions appear to only have five cards in a booster pack. Japanese sets typically contain just five cards in a pack, while internationally it’s ten. Six cards is a win for Japan, but five will feel extremely paltry everywhere else!
