Commerce is beginning to look a lot more like entertainment. Mechanics long associated with gaming and collecting are increasingly shaping how consumers discover, engage with, and buy products. This is broadly referred to as gamified commerce, whereby game mechanics are built into the act of buying, adding an entertainment layer to the purchase. Live shopping leader Whatnot recently announced a $20B valuation sending a clear message that the opportunity behind gamified commerce is transformative. However, the driver behind the early wave of gamified commerce may not be obvious to all. We look at how physical collectibles pioneered this novel concept and what we are looking for as the space broadens.

Collectibles as a Backdrop

It’s no secret that physical collectibles are having a moment. The type of collectibles which millions revered throughout their childhood, a multi-decade trend which persists to this day spanning sports, entertainment and intellectual property with deeply engaged fan bases. After significant venture investment flowed into the collectibles ecosystem from roughly 2020 to 2022, many came to view the category as another pandemic-era boom. The underlying consumer behavior proved more durable.

PSA, the gold standard for graded trading cards, has seen grading volume grow from 2 million cards in 2020 to more than 19 million in 2025. Pokémon provides an especially interesting example. Nearly 60% of PSA’s 2025 card grading volume came from Pokémon cards. One important accelerant of that demand has been Pokémon TCG Pocket, a mobile game built around digital card collecting and pack opening rather than physical-card ownership. Launched in October 2024, the game reignited a nostalgic love for many, now in their 30s and 40s, while also extending the Pokémon experience to a broader, younger audience. After one year, the numbers released by Pokémon were impressive: 150 million app downloads, more than 100 billion digital cards collected, and 96 million trades conducted between players. And perhaps the most interesting (and visible) impact, physical Pokémon card shortages around the world.

This backdrop is important. Rather than digital collecting replacing physical ownership, the two experiences can reinforce one another. A digital interface can dramatically expand discovery and participation while the underlying physical asset preserves many of the attributes consumers value: scarcity, authenticity, ownership and collectibility. Our view is that collectibles represent more than an attractive consumer category. They provide a useful proving ground for understanding how commerce itself may evolve.

A Digital Medium for the Physical Experience

The experience of opening a pack of cards, to be surprised and delighted by the contents inside, is familiar to many. We view this as an early analogue of gamified commerce whereby consumers know the product they are purchasing, but not the specific contents, making anticipation and discovery part of the transaction. The “unknown” element adds a crucial entertainment experience to an otherwise transactional moment. Over the last several years, this multi-generational pastime has been reinvented in digital form.

Today, dozens of companies offer some form of digital pack ripping experience (also commonly referred to as mystery box or gacha pack) for consumers. While the model varies slightly, the fundamental experience offered by most is a randomized pack opening whereby the contents inside are backed one for one by a vaulted, physical version. Upon opening the pack, just as you would a physical pack, the user now has ownership rights over the vaulted physical and can redeem the product and have it shipped to the address of their choice. Alternatively, they can sell the item back at fair market value. Similar to the experience in a physical card shop, but with reduced friction and often better pricing. And like that, a familiar experience to millions finds its way into a digital format.

The Opportunities We See Moving Forward

The most important lesson we can learn from collectibles is not simply that consumers enjoy opening mystery products. It’s that at the end of the day, consumers don’t just want to transact, they want to be entertained. And that entertainment can come in a variety of forms across discovery, scarcity, progression, community and competition around the underlying purchase. We expect the most durable applications of gamified commerce to draw from a much wider toolkit than randomized rewards alone.

While trading cards are where much of the industry has focused in recent years, there are clear signs for the potential of gamified commerce to extend well beyond this starting point. Beauty, for example, has long incorporated discovery through sampling and subscription models. Fashion naturally supports scarcity, drops, community and access. Luxury goods combine collecting, provenance and status. Sports merchandise can blend fandom, one-of-one availability and participation. Other categories may lend themselves to progression, personalization or live interaction.

And that type of opportunity is exactly where we are focused at Drive. We are looking for founders trying to reinvent the categories of commerce which are overlooked today. The most interesting companies will not simply copy the mechanics of card ripping category by category. They will begin with a deep understanding of how consumers already behave within a market and determine where technology can make the experience more participatory, entertaining or rewarding.

The global commerce market is measured in the trillions, orders of magnitude larger than the collectibles market, and yet it remains largely untapped from a gamified experience standpoint. We believe founders who possess an intrinsic knowledge of these alternative categories have an opportunity to build category defining businesses. If you’re building in this space, we want to talk. Please reach out to any member of our team or contact us at info@drivebydraftkings.com.