What was the first trading card game?

Magic: The Gathering. It was created by Richard Garfield and released by Wizards of the Coast on August 5, 1993, and Guinness World Records lists it as the first modern trading card game.

Were there trading card games before Magic: The Gathering?

There were precursors, not trading card games. Wikipedia's history of collectible card games names a 1904 prototype called The Base Ball Card Game, which never went into production, and a Baseball Card Game released by Topps in 1951.

What was the second trading card game?

Spellfire, published by TSR in June 1994. Jyhad, later renamed Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, followed from Wizards of the Coast on August 16, 1994.

Which is older, Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh!?

Pokémon. The Pokémon Trading Card Game was first published in Japan in October 1996. Konami launched the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game in Japan on February 4, 1999.

Is the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game the oldest trading card game?

No. Iron Crown Enterprises released its first set in late 1995, two years after Magic: The Gathering. Production ended in 1999 when the company lost the Tolkien license.

The Oldest Trading Card Game: A Brief History

December 16, 2022 Richard Weiss

Last updated: October 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

Magic: The Gathering, released on August 5, 1993, is the oldest trading card game. Guinness World Records lists it as the first modern trading card game.
Spellfire (June 1994) and Jyhad (August 1994) were the second and third.
The Pokémon Trading Card Game was first published in Japan in October 1996. Yu-Gi-Oh! launched in Japan on February 4, 1999.
The Middle-earth Collectible Card Game came out in late 1995, two years after Magic. It is not the oldest.
Older card games built on baseball cards, including a 1904 prototype and a 1951 Topps game, are treated as precursors, not trading card games.

The oldest trading card game
Timeline of the oldest TCGs
Before Magic: the precursors
Magic: The Gathering (1993)
Spellfire, Jyhad and Middle-earth
Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!
Sources

The oldest trading card game is Magic: The Gathering, created by Richard Garfield and released by Wizards of the Coast on August 5, 1993. Guinness World Records recognizes it as the first modern trading card game. A few card games that used collectible cards came earlier, but they are treated as precursors.

What Is the Oldest Trading Card Game?

A trading card game, also called a collectible card game (CCG), is a game where players collect cards and build their own decks from them. By that definition, Magic: The Gathering was first. The Guinness World Records entry for "first modern trading card game" names Magic and dates it to August 5, 1993.

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The Pokémon Trading Card Game and Yu-Gi-Oh! arrived three and six years later, and several other games came out in between.

Timeline of the Oldest Trading Card Games

Released	Game	Publisher	Why it matters
August 5, 1993	Magic: The Gathering	Wizards of the Coast	The first modern trading card game, per Guinness World Records
June 1994	Spellfire	TSR	The second collectible card game released
August 16, 1994	Jyhad (renamed Vampire: The Eternal Struggle in 1995)	Wizards of the Coast	The third, also designed by Richard Garfield
Late 1995	Middle-earth Collectible Card Game	Iron Crown Enterprises	The first card game of its kind based on Tolkien's Middle-earth
October 1996	Pokémon Trading Card Game	Media Factory (Japan)	Developed by Creatures Inc.
February 4, 1999	Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game	Konami	Launched in Japan. Reached North America in March 2002

Before Magic: The Precursors

Card games tied to collectible cards existed before 1993. Wikipedia's history of collectible card games names three:

The Base Ball Card Game (1904): a prototype that the article calls "a notable precursor" to CCGs. It never went into production, which is why it does not count as a collectible card game.
Batter Up Baseball (1947): a game by Ed-u-Cards Corp.
The Baseball Card Game (1951): released by Topps and described as the first of these precursors to make it to market.

The same article treats all three as precursors and names Magic as the first collectible card game.

Magic: The Gathering (1993)

Richard Garfield designed Magic for Wizards of the Coast, the company Peter Adkison founded in 1990. It was shown at the Origins Game Fair in July 1993 and went on general release on August 5, 1993. A U.S. patent titled "Trading card game method of play," with Garfield as inventor, was granted on September 2, 1997.

Read the full story in The Origins of Magic: The Gathering, or learn the rules in How to Play Magic: The Gathering.

The First Wave: Spellfire, Jyhad and Middle-earth

Other games followed, starting in 1994.

Spellfire (June 1994): published by TSR. It was the second collectible card game to be released.
Jyhad (August 16, 1994): designed by Richard Garfield and published by Wizards of the Coast. It was the third, and it was renamed Vampire: The Eternal Struggle in 1995.
Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (late 1995): published by Iron Crown Enterprises. Its first set was The Wizards, and it was the first collectible card game based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Production ended in 1999, when Iron Crown Enterprises lost the Tolkien license.

Middle-earth was one of 38 collectible card games that entered the market in 1995 alone.

Pokémon (1996) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (1999)

The Pokémon Trading Card Game was developed by Creatures Inc. and first published by Media Factory in Japan in October 1996. Wizards of the Coast handled the U.S. release, and in June 2003 Nintendo transferred the publishing rights from Wizards of the Coast to The Pokémon Company. Shop our Pokémon cards.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! card game is developed and published by Konami and is based on the manga by Kazuki Takahashi. It launched in Japan on February 4, 1999 and in North America in March 2002.

For any of these games, we carry TCG playmats, custom playmats, card sleeves and toploaders and dice sets. For the short definition of the term, see our TCG glossary page.