Card sleeve size matters. A sleeve that is too tight bends the corners of your cards; too loose, and the card slides around and the deck shuffles badly. The right size depends on one thing only: the card format of your game. Good news: most trading card games use the same one.
Standard card sleeve size: most games
Standard-size cards measure about 63 × 88 mm. That covers the games played most in tournaments:
| Game | Card size | Sleeves |
|---|---|---|
| Pokémon TCG | 63 × 88 mm | Standard size |
| Magic: The Gathering | 63 × 88 mm | Standard size |
| Riftbound | 63 × 88 mm | Standard size |
| Disney Lorcana | 63.5 × 88.9 mm | Standard size |
| One Piece Card Game | 63 × 88 mm | Standard size |
| Star Wars: Unlimited | 63 × 88 mm | Standard size |
For these games, a standard sleeve usually measures around 66 × 91 mm: a few millimetres of room so the card slides in without forcing, without floating. Day Two sleeves measure 66 × 91.5 mm and are made for this format.
Japanese small size
Some games use narrower cards, known as “small size” or “Japanese size”, of about 59 × 86 mm. That is the case for Yu-Gi-Oh! in particular. In a standard sleeve these cards have too much room: they need small-size sleeves.
Not sure? Measure a card with a ruler. Around 63 mm wide: standard size. Around 59 mm: small size.
Perfect fit, inner, outer: what do they mean?
- Standard sleeve (or “outer”): the sleeve you see, with a coloured back. It takes the shuffling and handling.
- Perfect fit (or “inner”): a very snug clear sleeve of about 64 × 89 mm that goes under the standard sleeve for double protection.
To play, one standard sleeve is enough. Double sleeving gives valuable cards extra protection: we explain it in our guide to sleeving your deck.
Beyond size
- Thickness: a thicker sleeve stands up better to repeated shuffling and whitening corners.
- The back: an opaque back, identical on every sleeve, is required in tournaments. A textured (matte) back shuffles better and shows fewer fingerprints.
- The material: choose sleeves without PVC or acid, which don’t yellow or damage cards over time.
In short
Pokémon, Magic, Riftbound, Lorcana, One Piece and Star Wars: Unlimited all use standard size: sleeves of about 66 × 91 mm fit them. Yu-Gi-Oh! and other small-size games need narrower sleeves. To know how many boxes to get, see how many sleeves you need per deck.