Are there card collecting games without battles?

Yes. Collecting-first apps have no match to win: Topps BUNT and NBA Collect by Topps for licensed sports cards, Topps' Disney Collect!, Marvel Collect! and Star Wars: Card Trader for franchises, and Boxed Up (sneakers), Tuned Up (music) and Filmed Up (films). You open packs, keep what you pull and trade with other players to complete sets.

Can you play Pokémon TCG Pocket without battling?

Mostly. Opening packs, building the collection and trading do not require a single battle, and plenty of players never play one. Some missions and events do reward battles, so skipping them means missing those rewards.

What is a card game where you only collect?

It is usually called a card collecting game, or a collecting-first game, to distinguish it from a collectible card game (CCG) like Magic or Hearthstone where cards exist to be played in a match. In a collecting game the collection is the goal: packs, rarity tiers, set completion, limited releases and a way to trade.

What do you do in a card collecting game if there are no battles?

Open packs, complete sets, chase limited releases and trade. The trading is where most of the depth lives: a player market or trade system turns duplicates into a route to the cards you are missing. Many also add light side modes — contests in the Topps apps, trivia and optional versus mini-games in Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up — that earn currency without being required.

Is there a Pokémon card game with no battles?

Not an official one built entirely without battles; TCG Pocket is the closest, since its battles are optional. If what you want is the pack-opening and collecting loop with a different subject, the collecting-first apps are the direct answer. If what you want is to track physical Pokémon cards you own, that is a collection tracker such as Collectr or Stocked Up, not a game.

Collecting, no combat

Card Collecting Games Without Battles

Yes, there are several. Collecting-first apps have no match to win: you open packs, keep the cards and trade to finish sets. The well-known ones are Topps BUNT and NBA Collect for sports, Topps' Disney, Marvel and Star Wars apps for franchises, and Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up for sneakers, music and films.

Pokémon TCG Pocket has battles, but you can mostly ignore them. Marvel Snap, Hearthstone and MTG Arena are the opposite: the battle is the game.

Real cards from Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up: a sneaker, a song and a film. In a collecting game the card is the thing you keep. It is not a piece you play with.

adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Zebra — Real cards from Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up: a sneaker, a song and a film. In a collecting game the card is the thing you keep. It is not a piece you play with.

The collecting games, and how much battling each has

Card collecting games by subject, whether they have battles, and how trading works
App	Cards are	Battles	Trading
Topps BUNT	MLB players	None. Optional contests scored on real games	Direct swaps with players
NBA Collect by Topps	NBA players	None. Optional contests	Direct swaps with players
Disney Collect!, Marvel Collect!, Star Wars: Card Trader	Franchise characters and scenes	None	Direct swaps with players
Boxed Up	Real sneakers	None required. Optional versus mini-games	Open market: listings, auctions, offers in coins
Tuned Up	Songs and artists	None required. Optional trivia and versus	Open market in coins
Filmed Up	Films	None required. Optional trivia and versus	Open market in coins
Pokémon TCG Pocket	Pokémon	Optional; some missions reward them	Limited trading

The first six are built for collecting. The Topps apps are the longest-running and have licensed cards. Ours are the ones with an open market, where every card has a price you can see. TCG Pocket is on the list because most of its players are there for the packs, not the fights.

Why this is hard to search for

Search for “card collecting games” and you mostly get battle games. Wikipedia's entry for collectible card games is about deckbuilders, and most “best card games” lists rank Hearthstone and Magic. The two kinds share a word and almost nothing else.

In a battle game, the collection serves the deck, and a card you cannot play is a dead card. In a collecting game, the collection is the goal, and no card is dead. The full explanation of the category also covers the third thing that shares the name: card scanners and trackers for physical collections.

Popular card games that are not this

If a friend recommended one of these for collecting, it is worth knowing what you are getting. Each one is a good game, and in each one the battle is the game.

Marvel Snap: quick matches. New cards come from a progression track rather than packs, and there is no trading.
Hearthstone: deck-building matches. You make cards from dust instead of trading for them.
MTG Arena and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel: full trading card games online, with competitive ladders. You cannot trade cards in either.
Pokémon TCG Live: the full Pokémon TCG rules, far more about battles than Pocket.

Picking one

The subject matters more than the mechanics, because every game here shares the same loop: packs, tiers, sets and trading. Pick the one whose cards you would want even with nothing else to do with them. If you want to see what cards sell for, pick one with an open market. For a longer side-by-side, see Topps BUNT vs Boxed Up or apps like Pokémon TCG Pocket.

Questions people ask

Are there card collecting games without battles?: Yes. Collecting-first apps have no match to win: Topps BUNT and NBA Collect by Topps for licensed sports cards, Topps' Disney Collect!, Marvel Collect! and Star Wars: Card Trader for franchises, and Boxed Up (sneakers), Tuned Up (music) and Filmed Up (films). You open packs, keep what you pull and trade with other players to complete sets.
Can you play Pokémon TCG Pocket without battling?: Mostly. Opening packs, building the collection and trading do not require a single battle, and plenty of players never play one. Some missions and events do reward battles, so skipping them means missing those rewards.
What is a card game where you only collect?: It is usually called a card collecting game, or a collecting-first game, to distinguish it from a collectible card game (CCG) like Magic or Hearthstone where cards exist to be played in a match. In a collecting game the collection is the goal: packs, rarity tiers, set completion, limited releases and a way to trade.
What do you do in a card collecting game if there are no battles?: Open packs, complete sets, chase limited releases and trade. The trading is where most of the depth lives: a player market or trade system turns duplicates into a route to the cards you are missing. Many also add light side modes — contests in the Topps apps, trivia and optional versus mini-games in Boxed Up, Tuned Up and Filmed Up — that earn currency without being required.
Is there a Pokémon card game with no battles?: Not an official one built entirely without battles; TCG Pocket is the closest, since its battles are optional. If what you want is the pack-opening and collecting loop with a different subject, the collecting-first apps are the direct answer. If what you want is to track physical Pokémon cards you own, that is a collection tracker such as Collectr or Stocked Up, not a game.

What is a card collecting game? — the category, and how it differs from battle games and card scanners.
Are digital trading cards worth anything?
Digital vs physical trading cards