Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game is a collectible card game published by Konami, first launched in Japan on 4 February 1999 and based on the fictional Duel Monsters card game featured in Kazuki Takahashi's Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, illustrated with the help of Studio Dice. Two players face off head-to-head, each building a deck of monster, spell and trap cards and dueling to reduce their opponent's life points to zero. Konami published the game directly in Japan and other Asian markets, while in North America and Europe the card game was distributed by Upper Deck from its 2002 debut in the region until 2008, when Konami Digital Entertainment took over publishing duties there as well. The game's popularity grew alongside the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime adaptations of Takahashi's manga, and by 2009 Guinness World Records recognized it as the best-selling trading card game in the world, with more than 22 billion cards sold; by January 2021 that figure had grown to an estimated 35 billion cards sold worldwide, cementing its place as one of the most commercially successful collectible card games ever produced.