Palworld TCG Card Shortage: First Set Sold Out Instantly

6 September 2026 · 4 min read

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The first official Palworld TCG set, Dawn of Palpagos, sold out instantly after launch: pre-orders reached 3 500 000 boosters before release, and publisher Bushiroad later publicly apologized to fans for the shortage.

Dawn of Palpagos goes on sale

Dawn of Palpagos — the first official card set in TCG format based on the game Palworld — went on sale on the thirtieth of July, twenty twenty-six. Even before release itself, pre-orders for boosters reached the 3 500 000 mark. Such a print run for a debut collectible card release is extraordinarily high and reflects the scale of hype surrounding the Palworld brand among fans of the game and card collectors alike.

Palworld itself already had a large and active audience by the time the set launched: that is reflected in the news about millions of Palworld players and the report on record concurrent players on Steam. It was this popularity of the video game that fueled the frenzied demand for the physical card set.

Cards hit the resale market instantly

Within the first day after release, individual cards from the Dawn of Palpagos set began appearing on the secondary market for thousands of dollars. The rarest cards from the debut print run vanished from retail shelves almost immediately, and scalpers listed them on dedicated marketplaces at a substantial markup practically as soon as the set went on sale.

This pattern is typical for debut releases of popular collectible card games, but the scale of the frenzy around Dawn of Palpagos proved especially notable precisely because pre-orders exceeded the available print run so quickly.

Publisher Bushiroad officially apologizes

Bushiroad, the publisher behind the set, officially apologized for the prolonged shortage of Dawn of Palpagos cards. In its statement, the publisher noted that real demand exceeded all of the company’s internal expectations for the first set’s print run. The publisher did not downplay the scale of the problem and acknowledged that a significant share of fans were unable to buy cards at regular retail prices because of the instant sellout and the shortage that followed in stores.

New shipment in Japan arrives without shrink wrap

On the fourteenth of August, twenty twenty-six, a new shipment of Dawn of Palpagos cards arrived at pop-up stores in Japan. The distinctive feature of this restock was that the boxes were sold without standard shrink wrap — a decision the publisher made specifically to make it harder to resell unopened packaging on the secondary market. Without factory shrink wrap, it becomes harder for a buyer to pass off a used or opened box as new, which lowers the appeal of such stock for scalpers.

What comes next: measures without a timeline

The publisher stated that the company is discussing internal measures against scalpers on the secondary market, but gave no specific restock timeline. This means fans who still have not been able to buy the Dawn of Palpagos set currently have no official indication of when the cards will again become widely available at retail prices.

What has not been officially reported

We deliberately avoid adding claims that are not present in the sources cited:

• The exact number of cards or boosters available in the new Japanese shipment on the fourteenth of August has not been officially disclosed.
• A specific date or even an approximate month for when the shortage will be considered fully resolved has not been named by the publisher.
• The specific internal anti-scalping measures Bushiroad is discussing have not been officially detailed.
• Data on the print run or pre-orders for any possible future Palworld TCG sets has not been officially disclosed.

Summary

The first Palworld TCG set, Dawn of Palpagos, which released on the thirtieth of July, twenty twenty-six, sold out instantly: pre-orders reached 3 500 000 boosters, and individual cards were already being resold on the secondary market for thousands of dollars the very next day. Publisher Bushiroad publicly apologized for the shortage and, on the fourteenth of August, restocked pop-up stores in Japan with boxes sold without shrink wrap, but it has still not named a specific timeline for fully resolving the shortage. To understand just how large the game’s audience behind this hype is, see the overview of Palworld player reviews on Steam and the news on the game leaving early access.