One of the most important metrics for a new expansion set is the pull rate – the ratio of packs that have rare cards to those that don’t. Sets that have a good pull rate tend to be more popular than those with a low pull rate. We conducted an experiment to find out how good the Evolving Skies pull rate is.
What is in the Evolving Skies Booster Box?
Evolving Skies is the 7th main expansion set in the Pokémon Sword and Shield series.
The set was released on 27th August with a presale price of around £115 ($158) and most stockists had sold out on pre-release.
New booster boxes are sealed a with clear film covering which has the Pokémon logo imprinted in white.
Each booster box contains 36 sealed booster packs. The booster packs for this set have four different artworks – Duraludon, Rayquaza, Sylveon and Umbreon.
How good is the Evolving Skies pull rate?
The term ‘pull rate’ refers to the numbers of holo, half art, and full art (including ultra and secret rare) that are found in booster boxes. The higher the numbers of these cards, the better the pull rate.
Booster packs containing one of these cards generally contain a white online code card. Other code cards are green.
We opened three booster boxes – a total of 108 booster packs. The boxes were purchased from different suppliers to make sure they were not part of the same print run. The Evolving Skies pull rate results were logged by artwork and also as a total:
Booster Box 1
This box contained 11 packs with Rayquaza artwork, 9 with Sylveon, 8 Duraludon and 8 Umbreon.
Out of the 36 packs 15 contained white code cards – a pull rate of 42%
The 13 packs with white code cards contained – 7 holo rare cards, 4 V cards, 2 VMAX and 2 full art ultra rare cards.
We also examined the pull rate by artwork:
Rayquaza artwork – 1 ultra rare full art, 2 VMAX full art, 3 V half art, 3 holo rare
Sylveon artwork – 1 ultra rare full art, 1 holo rare
Duraludon artwork – 1 V half art card and 2 holo rare cards
Umbreon artwork – 1 holo rare
Booster Box 2
This box contained 10 Duraludon, 9 Umbreon, 9 Sylveon and 8 packs with Rayquaza artwork.
Out of the 36 packs 16 contained white code cards – a pull rate of 44%.
The 16 packs with white code cards contained – 8 holo rare cards, 3 V cards, 2 VMAX, 1 full art ultra rare and 1 gold secret rare card.
The pull rate by artwork for this box was:
Duraludon artwork – 1 holo rare, 1 V half art card, 1 VMAX full art and 1 gold secret rare
Umbreon artwork – 3 holo rare
Sylveon artwork – 2 holo rare, 2 V half art cards and 1 alternate art ultra rare
Raquaza artwork – 2 holo rare and 2 VMAX full art cards
Booster Box 3
This box contained 12 Sylveon artwork, 10 Duraludon, 8 Rayquaza and 6 Umbreon artwork.
Out of the 36 packs 16 contained white code cards – a pull rate of 44%
The 16 packs with white code cards contained – 6 holo rare cards, 5 V cards, 3 VMAX, 1 full art ultra rare and 1 alternate art ultra rare card.
The pull rate by artwork for this box was:
Sylveon artwork – 2 holo rare, 1 V half art card, 1 VMAX full art and 1 ultra rare full art
Duraludon artwork – 2 holo rare, 2 V half art cards, 1 VMAX full art and 1 ultra rare alternate art card
Rayquaza artwork – 1 holo rare, 2 V half art cards and 1 VMAX full art card
Umbreon artwork – 1 holo rare
Booster Boxes 1, 2 and 3 combined
Altogether the 3 boxes contained 30 packs with Sylveon artwork, 28 with Duraludon, 27 Rayquaza and 23 Umbreon. Out of the 108 packs 47 contained white code cards – a pull rate of 44%.
The 28 packs with white code cards contained – 13 holo rare cards, 9 V cards, 2 VMAX and 3 full art ultra rare and 1 full art secret rare card.
The pull rate by artwork for all boxes combined was:
Sylveon artwork – 5 holo rares, 3 V half art cards, 1 VMAX card and 3 Ultra rares – a pull rate of just 12/30 = 40%
Duraludon artwork – 5 holo rare cards, 4 V half art, 2 VMAX, 1 Ultra rare and 1 secret rare – 13/28 = 46%
Rayquaza artwork – 6 holo rare, 5 V half art cards, 5 VMAX full art and 1 ultra rare card – 17/27 = 63%
Umbreon artwork – 5 holo rare cards – 5/23 = 22%
Conclusion
From the results above it seems that Evolving Skies pull rate is exceptionally good. When calculated over the 3 booster boxes it works out at 44% which we believe is the best pull rate so far for the Sword and Shield series. The 108 booster packs packed a total of 13 holo rare cards, 9 V cards, 2 VMAX and 3 full art ultra rare and 1 full art secret rare card.
However, when looking at the pull rate by artwork only the Sylveon and Duraludon artwork come close to the 44% average pull rate. The Rayquaza artwork performed particularly well showing a 63% pull rate while the packs with Umbreon artwork performed particularly badly scoring just 22%.
It should be remembered that this experiment was carried out using just 3 booster boxes and while it appears to show a trend, may not be indicative of all booster boxes. To draw any definitive conclusions with regard to the Evolving Skies booster box pull rate a far greater number of booster packs should be analysed.
