Pokemon Vending Machine Results: 10 Locations, One Month of Real Data
VTM Vending TCG / Field Data
Field Data / July 2026 / 10 Locations
Ten Pokemon Vending Machines. One Month. $22,319 in Gross Revenue.
Real vend logs from ten VTM Pokemon vending machines covering July 1 to July 31, 2026, one full calendar month. The fleet spans retail, hospitality, FEC and arcade, and c-store and gas station venues. Below: every location's numbers, what sold, when people bought, and what the spread between the best and worst machine tells operators building a route in 2026.
$22,319
Gross Revenue
1,141
Total Vends
$19.56
Avg Vend Price
$2,232
Avg Revenue Per Location
01 / The Fleet
From one machine in Cleveland to ten locations of live data.
Earlier this year we published a single-machine deep dive: a Pokemon vending machine at a 24-hour Shell gas station in Cleveland that generated $2,057 in revenue and $922 in profit over 28 days. One machine is a data point. This report is the follow-up: ten VTM Pokemon vending machines, tracked over the same full calendar month, July 2026.
The ten locations are a mix of retail, hospitality, FEC and arcade, and c-store and gas station venues. Exact location names and addresses are withheld for privacy, so the machines are numbered 1 through 10. All revenue figures are gross vend revenue before sales tax. The dataset covers 1,141 individual transactions, and it includes five $0 vends recorded by the machines, which we left in the counts.
Why This Data Matters
Most Pokemon vending revenue claims online are projections. These are timestamped vend logs pulled from live machines: every transaction, every SKU, every price, across four different venue types in one month.
02 / The Numbers
Every location sold. The best did $4,739 in the month.
Fleet-wide, the ten machines averaged $2,232 in monthly gross revenue, with a median of $1,889. The top machine, Location 5, cleared $4,739.43 on 257 vends. The slowest, Location 3, did $531.71 on 34 vends. Average vend price ran from $15.64 at the low end to $27.75 at Location 2, which leaned on premium product like graded slabs and White Flare.
| Location | Vends | Gross Revenue | Avg Vend Price | Active SKUs | Top Sellers (By Units) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location 1 | 62 | $1,338.40 | $21.59 | 14 | Mega Evolution, Mystery Graded Slab, Prismatic Evolutions |
| Location 2 | 41 | $1,137.61 | $27.75 | 11 | Ascended Heroes, Mystery Graded Slab, White Flare |
| Location 3 | 34 | $531.71 | $15.64 | 7 | Chaos Rising, Prismatic Evolutions, Ascended Heroes |
| Location 4 | 60 | $1,469.41 | $24.49 | 11 | Mystery Graded Slab, Mega Evolution, Surging Sparks |
| Location 5 | 257 | $4,739.43 | $18.44 | 11 | Ascended Heroes, Prismatic Evolutions, Pitch Black |
| Location 6 | 190 | $3,880.12 | $20.42 | 15 | Surging Sparks, Prismatic Evolutions, NihilZero (3 Pack) |
| Location 7 | 156 | $3,378.44 | $21.66 | 15 | Surging Sparks, Prismatic Evolutions, NihilZero (3 Pack) |
| Location 8 | 126 | $2,065.75 | $16.39 | 18 | Prismatic Evolutions, Surging Sparks, NihilZero (3 Pack) |
| Location 9 | 112 | $2,062.88 | $18.42 | 19 | Perfect Order, Ascended Heroes, Surging Sparks |
| Location 10 | 103 | $1,715.99 | $16.66 | 19 | Surging Sparks, Prismatic Evolutions, Ascended Heroes |
| Fleet Total | 1,141 | $22,319.74 | $19.56 | 39 distinct | Prismatic Evolutions, Ascended Heroes, Surging Sparks |
Read The Middle, Not The Edges
Seven of the ten machines did between $1,137 and $3,880 for the month. If you are modeling a route, the median machine at $1,889 in monthly gross revenue is a more honest planning number than either the star or the straggler.
03 / What Sold
39 SKUs vended. Three of them moved 40% of the units.
39
Distinct SKUs vended fleet-wide
7 to 19 active SKUs per machine
40.2%
Of all units came from the top 3 SKUs
459 of 1,141 vends
$49.99
Top price point: Mystery Graded Slab
26 vends, $1,299.74 in revenue
Revenue by Product, Top 8 Fleet-Wide
Two current Scarlet and Violet era sets, Prismatic Evolutions and Ascended Heroes, finished within $142 of each other at the top and together accounted for $6,488.87, or 29% of fleet revenue. The pattern from the Cleveland study held across all ten machines: current premium sets carry the machine, and a small number of hot SKUs do a disproportionate share of the work.
The Premium Slot Pays
The Mystery Graded Slab vended only 26 times, about once every 36 vends, yet it was the fourth largest revenue line in the fleet at $49.99 per vend. One well-stocked premium slot can outearn entire shelves of mid-priced product.
04 / When People Buy
Thursday through Saturday drove 56% of the month's revenue.
The fleet recorded sales on all 31 days of July. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were the three biggest days by both vends and revenue, combining for $12,545.68, or 56.2% of the monthly total. The single best fleet day was Thursday, July 2, at $1,914.91 across the ten machines.
By hour, demand built through the afternoon and peaked in the evening. The 7 PM hour was the busiest of the month with 124 vends, and the 5 PM to 10 PM window produced 42.6% of all transactions. The afternoon secondary peak at 2 PM (121 vends) reflects the daytime traffic that retail and FEC venues add to the after-work pattern we saw at the Cleveland gas station.
Restock Rhythm
If Thursday to Saturday is 56% of your revenue, walking into the weekend with empty top-seller aisles is the most expensive mistake an operator can make. Restock midweek, before the run starts.
05 / The Spread
Same machines. Same month. An 8.9x gap between best and worst.
Location 5 outsold Location 3 by 8.9x on revenue, $4,739.43 against $531.71, in the same month with the same equipment. That spread is the single most important number on this page. Product mix moves the needle, but location quality decides the outcome. The two lowest-revenue machines also ran the fewest active SKUs (7 and 11), while the four machines above $2,000 all ran 11 or more.
The practical read for operators: place for traffic first, then let the vend log tell you what to stock. Every machine in this fleet sold product every week. None of them lost money on the month at typical TCG margins, but the difference between a location that covers its own cost and one that anchors a route is visible within the first 30 days of data.
06 / Revenue vs Profit
These numbers are gross revenue. Here is how to model profit.
This dataset reports gross vend revenue before sales tax and does not include each operator's cost of goods, so we are not publishing a fleet profit figure. For a fully documented margin example, the Cleveland case study tracked wholesale cost on every SKU and landed at a 44.8% blended gross margin.
To model your own numbers against this data, run the median ($1,889) and average ($2,232) monthly revenue figures through the Pokemon vending machine profit calculator with your own product costs, and price your planogram from the VTM Vending Pokemon booster pack catalog.
07 / Operator FAQ
Questions this data can actually answer.
How much revenue does a Pokemon vending machine make per month?
Across these ten VTM machines in July 2026, monthly gross revenue ranged from $531.71 to $4,739.43, with an average of $2,232 and a median of $1,889. Venue traffic is the biggest driver of where a machine lands in that range.
What Pokemon products sell best in vending machines?
In this fleet, Prismatic Evolutions (164 units, $3,315.40), Ascended Heroes (154 units, $3,173.47), and Surging Sparks (141 units, $1,779.60) led by both units and revenue. Premium items pulled their weight too: the $49.99 Mystery Graded Slab was the fourth largest revenue line on just 26 vends.
When do Pokemon vending machines sell the most?
Thursday through Saturday produced 56.2% of this fleet's July revenue. By hour, the 5 PM to 10 PM window drove 42.6% of all vends, with the 7 PM hour the single busiest of the month.
What price points work for Pokemon TCG vending?
The fleet's average vend price was $19.56, with per-machine averages from $15.64 to $27.75. Single packs in this data vended mostly between $8.99 and $24.99, multi-packs ran up to $43.99, and graded slabs vended at $49.99.
08 / Keep Reading
The rest of the Pokemon vending series.
Case Study
The Cleveland Single-Machine Deep Dive
$922 profit in 28 days at a 24-hour Shell station, with full planogram, COGS, and margin breakdown.
Read The Case StudyGuide
The Ultimate VTM Pokemon Vending Machine Guide
Machines, planograms, placement, and operations for TCG vending, end to end.
Open The GuideTool
Pokemon Vending Machine Profit Calculator
Plug this report's revenue figures into your own cost structure and model a route.
Run Your NumbersStart Your Route
Put a VTM Pokemon Vending Machine on a Floor Like These.
The machines behind this data are built and supported by VTM Vending: cashless payments, remote vend logs like the ones in this report, and planogram flexibility from $8.99 packs to $49.99 graded slabs.
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