Pokémon TCG Pocket is two games in one. There is the pack-opening game: two free packs a day, the slow card flip, the immersive rares, the binder. And there is the battle game bolted on top. Most “games like TCG Pocket” lists only give you battle games, which is why people who loved the packs bounce off every recommendation. So this list asks first: which half did you like? Three of the apps below are ours, and they are here because they are the collecting half without the Pokémon; the rest are here because they are genuinely the right answer for the other half.
The alternatives
| App | Cards are | Type | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boxed Up Conwov | Real sneakers | Collect & trade | You liked the packs and the rare pulls; you want a marketplace and numbered cards |
| Topps BUNT Topps | MLB players | Collect & trade | You liked completing sets and trading with people |
| NBA Collect by Topps Topps | NBA players | Collect & trade | Same as BUNT, for basketball |
| Tuned Up Conwov | Songs and artists | Collect & trade | You liked the packs; you would rather collect music than monsters |
| Filmed Up Conwov | Movies | Collect & trade | You liked the packs; you would rather collect films |
| Marvel Snap Second Dinner | Marvel characters | Battle-first | You liked the quick battles more than the packs |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Konami | Yu-Gi-Oh! cards | Battle-first | You want a real TCG with a much bigger card pool |
| Magic: The Gathering Arena Wizards of the Coast | Magic cards | Battle-first | You want the deepest possible card game |
| Hearthstone Blizzard | Warcraft characters | Battle-first | You want polish and a gentle learning curve |
| Pokémon TCG Live The Pokémon Company | Pokémon cards | Battle-first | You want the full Pokémon TCG rules (it is still Pokémon) |
If you liked the packs and the rare pulls
You want a collecting-first game: something to open every day, tiers to chase, and a reason to care which copy you got.
Boxed Up
Conwov · Collect & tradeThe closest thing to Pocket's collecting loop with real-world subjects, plus a marketplace Pocket does not have.
Packs of real sneakers — 9,400+ cards across seven rarity tiers — with holographic glow variants and a live player marketplace where cards are listed, auctioned and traded for in-game coins. The feature Pocket players tend to latch onto is drops: a weekly release of a brand-new Green card with a fixed supply, where every copy is serial-numbered in pull order and the whole run usually sells out within the hour. Battles exist as optional versus mini-games; you never need them to progress.
Tuned Up
Conwov · Collect & tradePocket's pack feeling, with songs and artists on the cards instead of monsters.
Same seven-tier ladder, weekly numbered drops and marketplace as Boxed Up, built around music across every genre. The mini-games are music trivia — guess the year, finish the lyric — so the daily loop plays to what you already know.
Filmed Up
Conwov · Collect & tradeThe same again for films, with cast and director on every card.
Movie cards from blockbusters to cult classics, with a stronger trivia side than its sisters. If your Pocket binder was really about completing sets of things you love, and the things you love are films, this is the one.
Topps BUNT
Topps · Collect & tradeLicensed sports cards with the best player-to-player trading community.
Topps' long-running MLB app, with daily releases, set completion, contests tied to real games and direct trading. NBA Collect by Topps is the basketball version, and Disney Collect!, Marvel Collect! and Star Wars: Card Trader are the same idea for those franchises. Choose by what you want on the card.
If you liked the battles
Pocket's battles are deliberately simple. These are the games to go to when you want more of that, in either direction.
Marvel Snap
Second Dinner · Battle-firstThe same 'a match in three minutes' pace, with far more decision-making.
Twelve-card decks, six turns, a snap mechanic that doubles the stakes. Collecting is a track of new cards plus art variants — there are no packs and no trading — so come for the matches.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
Konami · Battle-firstA real TCG with thousands of cards and a competitive ladder.
If Pocket made you curious about full-rules card games, Master Duel is the biggest step up that is still free and on a phone.
Magic: The Gathering Arena
Wizards of the Coast · Battle-firstThe deepest option. Drafts, formats, thirty years of card design.
Arena is the digital version of the original trading card game. It is more demanding than anything else here and rewards the time.
Hearthstone
Blizzard · Battle-firstPolished, friendly, and still the easiest 'real' CCG to learn.
Blizzard's CCG remains the smoothest on-ramp from a casual card game to deck-building. Cards are crafted from dust rather than traded.
Pokémon TCG Live
The Pokémon Company · Battle-firstStill Pokémon, but the full TCG rather than Pocket's simplified version.
Included for completeness: if what you actually want is the real Pokémon TCG with full rules, TCG Live is the official client. It is much less about the packs.
If you liked trading and wished there was more of it
Pocket's trading is limited by design. The apps with a proper economy are Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up, which run a live marketplace with listings, auctions and direct offers (in-game coins only, nothing cashes out), and the Topps apps, which allow direct player-to-player trades. If you want ownership with real money, that is NBA Top Shot, which is a marketplace on a blockchain first and a game second, and plays nothing like Pocket.
Questions people ask
- What is the closest game to Pokémon TCG Pocket that is not Pokémon?
- It depends on which half you liked. For the pack-opening and collecting half, the closest experiences are the collecting-first apps: Boxed Up (sneakers), Tuned Up (music), Filmed Up (films) and Topps BUNT or NBA Collect (licensed sports cards). All have daily free ways to open packs, rarity tiers and a trading layer. For the battle half, Marvel Snap is the closest in pace, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel or Magic Arena are the closest in being a real TCG.
- Is there a pack-opening game with trading and a marketplace?
- Yes. Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up have a live player marketplace with listings, auctions and offers, all in in-game coins. Topps BUNT and NBA Collect support direct trades between players. Pokémon TCG Pocket's trading is more restricted, and the battle games (Snap, Hearthstone, Arena, Master Duel) have no trading at all.
- Do any of these use crypto or NFTs?
- None of the apps in this article do. Every card stays inside its app. If you specifically want blockchain ownership, that is NBA Top Shot or Sorare, which are not covered here because they play very differently from TCG Pocket.
- Which alternative gives free packs every day?
- All of them give you something daily. Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up hand out coins and gems through daily rewards, challenges and mini-games that you spend on packs, and every card can be earned without paying. Topps apps have daily free packs and login rewards. Snap, Hearthstone and Arena give daily quests that pay in currency.
- Are there numbered or limited-edition cards like TCG Pocket's rare pulls?
- Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up go further than TCG Pocket here: weekly drops mint a brand-new Green card with a fixed supply, and every copy carries a serial number in the order it was pulled. Once the supply is claimed the card is sold out for good and only changes hands between players.
Start with the packs
Free on iOS and Android. Every card can be earned by playing. For the full category, see the best card collecting games for iPhone and Android.