Card Sizes Across Trading Card Games: What Fits What

By CardSpicy Founder · October 20, 2026

Opening page of the cross-game accessory guides and the measurement reference the series assumes, including the Dragon Ball and One Piece comparison. Every figure is attributed, and the table marks which numbers come from a manufacturer document and which from a retailer standard.

Quick answer

Six of the seven games on this page use a card measuring 63 × 88 mm, and the seventh, Yu-Gi-Oh!, uses 59 × 86 mm, so the hobby does not have one accessory market, it has two. Pokémon, Magic, One Piece, Dragon Ball Super, Digimon and Gundam Card Game share the same face dimensions, and a standard-size sleeve made for one fits the others. Yu-Gi-Oh! is 4 mm narrower and 2 mm shorter, and nothing made for the other six fits it without slack.

The asymmetry is what people get wrong. A Yu-Gi-Oh! card in a standard pocket does not fail; it slides. The extra width lets it travel to the seam, and the wear lands on one corner over months. A 63 mm card in a small sleeve simply does not go in, which is the safer failure because it happens immediately and in front of you. One mistake announces itself. The other does not.

The measurements, and where they come from

Dimensions are quoted to the nearest millimetre, which is coarser than the tolerance a press holds. These are published nominal sizes, not measurements taken from a stack on a desk.

Two things follow from the basis column rather than the numbers. First, 63 × 88 mm and 2.5 × 3.5 in are not quite the same measurement: the inch figure converts to roughly 63.5 × 88.9 mm, which is why two sleeves both labelled “standard” can feel different. Second, only Magic publishes its size inside a rules document, making it the one figure here citable as a rule rather than a product description.

Sleeve outer dimensions are a separate question. Bandai lists its own at 67 × 92 mm, and most standard sleeves sit in the 66–67 by 91–92 mm range. The card is 63 mm; the sleeve adds a seam each side and a weld above the opening. That gap is the clearance the card moves in.

What four millimetres actually does

Quoted as a number, 63 mm against 59 mm sounds trivial. In a pocket it is about 7 mm of travel across and 5 mm down. A card with that much travel does not stay centred: handling tilts the sleeve, the card settles into the lowest corner, and the same corner takes the contact every time. A sleeve seam is a welded edge, harder than the film beside it, so the wear is abrasive rather than merely compressive. On a card with a printed border that shows first as a dulled corner, then as a small white break in the ink.

The reverse case fails differently. A 63 mm card in a 62 mm pocket does not fit, and forcing it abrades the edge along its full length on the way in. A 59 × 86 mm card in a 3×4 toploader sits between the two cases: protected from bending, not from movement, and free to rattle against the inner wall. Both failures are why a mixed collection needs two gauges rather than one.

Two markets, and one misleading label

The sleeve trade divides into “standard size” and “Japanese size”, and the second label is the most confusing piece of vocabulary in the hobby. It does not describe where the card was printed. Japanese Pokémon cards are the standard 63 × 88 mm, and so are Japanese One Piece, Digimon and Gundam cards. The one widely played game on the small format is Yu-Gi-Oh!.

“Japanese size” survives as a trade name because Yu-Gi-Oh! made that format commercially important, not because the format is Japanese. Buy by measurement:

• 63 × 88 mm: standard size, whatever the language on the card face.
• 59 × 86 mm: small size, whatever the language on the card face.
• Unsure which you have: measure the short edge. A ruler settles it faster than any product description.
• What else transfers: nine-pocket pages and 3×4 holders assume the standard footprint; deck boxes are specified by card count and transfer freely; penny sleeves are the only item sold in both formats, and the two are not interchangeable.

The same nominal size is not the same card

Face dimensions are shared. Everything else about the object is not, and once a card is inside a sleeve the other variables matter more than the millimetres.

1. Stock thickness. Stock varies by publisher and print era, and foil adds a layer. A holder’s point rating exists for this: 35 pt is built for a card up to about 0.035 inch.
2. Corner radius. Rounded corners are near-universal, but the radius differs slightly by publisher, and a tighter radius presents more of a point to the seam.
3. Curl. Foil cards bow along one axis in a humid climate, so a bowed card is thicker in the middle than at the edges.
4. Within-game exceptions. Jumbo promos, box toppers and older product printed before a publisher standardised all break the chart.

Storing a collection that spans both formats

The problem is not that the two formats need different products. It is that they need the same products in two sizes, and the failure is silent: a small card in a standard pocket looks fine on the shelf and wears at one corner for a year. Separate by gauge, not by game: one sleeve size per box, labelled with the measurement rather than the game name. A box marked with the gauge cannot be misread; a box marked with a game name eventually will be.

For the first layer, a matte sleeve in the correct gauge is the whole of the requirement, and the matte finish earns its place because a glossy sleeve on a dark-bordered card records every fingerprint. For the second layer on standard cards, a 3×4 rigid holder is the right size and the card will not move inside it. On the small format the same holder is a size too generous, and a press-fit case removes the slack by closing on the card rather than relying on a pocket cut for a larger one. Most display frames assume 63 × 88 mm too, so a small card needs a mount rather than a wedge, and a display slab sidesteps it by holding the card at its own edges.

For loose packs kept alongside the singles, the wrapper is the fragile part and a rigid pack box is the right container. The sleeve size reference and the case size reference cover the measurements behind both.

Where this sits

This is the measurement page for the series, so it has no predecessor. Next is the comparison work: Dragon Ball against One Piece for two games sharing a publisher and a size, and the wider accessory question in accessories for every TCG. If you need the sleeve decision rather than the comparison, the thickness guide covers the second variable after size.

Frequently asked questions

Are Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards the same size?

No. Pokémon cards are 63 × 88 mm and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards are 59 × 86 mm. The gap is 4 mm across and 2 mm down, enough for a standard sleeve to leave a Yu-Gi-Oh! card free to slide into one corner.

Do Japanese cards need different sleeves from English ones?

Not by language. Japanese Pokémon cards are the same 63 × 88 mm as English ones, and Japanese One Piece, Digimon and Gundam cards are 63 × 88 mm too. The small format is a Yu-Gi-Oh! property, not a Japanese one.

Will a Yu-Gi-Oh! card fit in a 3×4 toploader?

It fits, but not snugly. A 3×4 holder is built around 63 × 88 mm, so a 59 × 86 mm card sits with visible slack. For travel, a holder that closes on the card beats one that relies on pocket width.

Is 63 × 88 mm the same as 2.5 × 3.5 inches?

Almost. The inch figure converts to roughly 63.5 × 88.9 mm, which is why two sleeves both called “standard” can feel slightly different.

Do all Bandai card games use the same size?

The three covered here do, and so does the Gundam Card Game. That is why Bandai sells its 67 × 92 mm sleeves across its card lines rather than per game.

What the two formats actually look like

The difference disappears in a photograph of one card and is obvious the moment two are placed edge to edge.

Image note: the cards described in this section are not shown. This page compares products from several games, and no single public scan archive covers them all, so the comparisons are described rather than illustrated. Each description is written to be checked against the physical card.

Sources

Sources and further reading

1. Wizards of the Coast — Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules, rule 108.2a: approximately 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) by 3.5 inches (8.8 cm).
2. TCGplayer — Card Conditioning Standards: 63 × 88 mm for Magic and Pokémon, 59 × 86 mm for Yu-Gi-Oh!.
3. Bandai — Premium Bandai specifications for One Piece, Dragon Ball Super and Gundam Card Game releases: card 63 × 88 mm, official sleeves 67 × 92 mm.
4. Bandai — Premium Bandai specification for a Digimon Card Game binder set: card approximately 63 × 88 mm.
5. Konami — Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME official site. The 59 × 86 mm figure comes from the retailer standard above and is commonly listed at that size.
6. CardSpicy — Card sleeve sizes explained, for pocket and outer dimensions.
7. CardSpicy — Card case sizes explained, for rigid holders and point ratings.

Related reading

• Dragon Ball vs One Piece cards — two Bandai games sharing a publisher and a size.
• Card sleeve thickness guide — the second variable after size.
• Penny sleeve vs toploader — which layer does which job.
• Sleeves, toploaders and card cases — three layers, three failure modes.
• Accessories for every TCG — the hub for cross-game accessory questions.
• Seven types of card damage — including corner wear from slack.

Nothing on this page is investment advice. Dimensions are quoted from the documentation listed above and describe the standard card in each game, not every card ever printed under that logo; where a figure is a retailer standard rather than a manufacturer specification, the table says so. No product is offered for sale here.

Where to go next

• The CardSpicy card index — every card we track, with its PSA 10 population and market history (195 cards).
• The illustrator index — every artist behind those cards, card by card (110 artists).