How Yu-Gi-Oh! became a card game

Who makes it

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game is made by Konami, the Japanese game company. The card game is based on Duel Monsters, the game played in Kazuki Takahashi's manga Yu-Gi-Oh!, published by Shueisha in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1996 to 2004.

Konami's Official Card Game came out in Japan in 1999. The English Trading Card Game followed in 2002. The two have their own sets and their own Forbidden & Limited lists, and some cards come out in Japan first.

Upper Deck Entertainment distributed the English game at first. Konami has handled it itself since 2008.

Kazuki Takahashi, who created Yu-Gi-Oh!, died in July 2022.

From Blue-Eyes to today

The English game launched in North America in March 2002 with Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon and the first starter decks for Yugi and Kaiba. A new booster has followed every few months since, and each anime series brought a new kind of monster.

1. 1999Konami's Official Card Game launches in Japan.
2. 8 March 2002Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon, the first English booster.
3. 29 March 2002Starter Deck: Yugi and Starter Deck: Kaiba.
4. 26 June 2002Metal Raiders.
5. 2 September 2008The Duelist Genesis brings Synchro Monsters, from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
6. 16 August 2011Generation Force brings Xyz Monsters, from Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
7. 14 August 2014Duelist Alliance brings Pendulum Monsters, from Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.
8. 3 August 2017Code of the Duelist brings Link Monsters and the Extra Monster Zones, from Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.
9. 24 January 2019Speed Duel, a faster game on a smaller field, starts with its own starter decks.
10. 20 April 202325th anniversary reprints of the earliest boosters.
11. 7 November 2024Quarter Century Bonanza.

A new way to summon for each era

At the start, monsters were Normal Summoned, Tributed for, fused with Polymerization or brought out with Ritual Spells. Fusion and Ritual came from the first manga.

Each new anime added a mechanic that is still in the game: Synchro Monsters with Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's in 2008, Xyz Monsters with ZEXAL in 2011, Pendulum Monsters with ARC-V in 2014 and Link Monsters with VRAINS in 2017. Link Monsters came with a rules change, Master Rule 4, that reshaped the field; a later revision in 2020 relaxed it again.

This site's set pages let you filter any set by these card types.

Kinds of release

Core boosters are the main sets, usually three or four a year. Between them come special boosters such as Legendary Duelists, Battles of Legend, Maximum Gold and the Rarity Collections, which mix reprints and new cards.

Structure Decks are ready-to-play decks built around one archetype. Starter decks teach new players. Tins, promotional cards, tournament prizes and special editions make up the rest; they are on this site's third timeline, “Tins, promos and more”.

• Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon The first English booster, 2002.
• Invasion of Chaos Chaos monsters that shaped early tournaments, 2004.
• The Duelist Genesis The first Synchro Monsters, 2008.
• Duelist Alliance The first Pendulum Monsters, 2014.
• Code of the Duelist The first Link Monsters, 2017.

Tournaments

Konami runs organised play from local tournaments to Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events, national championships and an annual World Championship. A Forbidden & Limited list, updated several times a year, keeps the strongest cards in check.

In 2009 Guinness World Records named Yu-Gi-Oh! the best-selling trading card game, and Konami has reported many billions of cards sold since.

Yu-Gi-Oh! today

More than twenty years on, the game keeps its first monsters alive: Blue-Eyes, Dark Magician and Red-Eyes still get new cards. Every English set with cards in it is on this site's timeline, and every card can be opened from its set page.