NARUTO CARD GAME makes its world debut at Gen Con 2026
Four days in Indianapolis, free tutorial sessions, a gift set with the first card ever printed — and a second-hand market that was moving before the convention even closed.
The NARUTO CARD GAME had its world debut at Gen Con 2026, held in Indianapolis from 30 July to 2 August 2026. Until that morning nobody outside BANDAI had sat down and actually played it.
The game was shown at the BANDAI CARD GAMES booth through free, beginner-friendly Tutorial Sessions. Tickets for those sessions were released through the official Gen Con registration system from 21 June, and a Gen Con badge was required to take part — this was not a walk-up giveaway.
Everyone who completed a Tutorial Session received a gift set, and inside it was the card that starts the whole story: the CP-001 Chakra Card in its Gen Con 2026 version. The set also contained a NARUTO CARD GAME backpack, a sticker and a ticket to buy an official playmat in 2027. Visitors who only stopped by the booth could still get the backpack and the sticker, but the allocation was capped per day and ran out.
The sessions taught the basics BANDAI has published so far. You build a deck of 51 cards around a Leader, plus 5 Chakra cards and 1 Summon card. Your Leader's colour decides which Characters you may include. You rest the Summon card to bring a Character onto the field, spend Chakra to activate face-down support cards such as Ninjutsu, and you win by reducing the opposing Leader's Life to zero.
The market reacted before the convention was over. The first CP-001 sale we recorded closed on 30 July at €1,734.90. The next day, with dozens of cards out of the hall and onto the listings, the median across 36 sales fell to €1,300.31, and by 1 August it was down to €1,171.16. That is roughly a 32% drop in three days, and it is exactly the pattern a convention promo follows once supply catches up with the first wave of demand.
Gen Con was only the opening stop. The game tours New York Comic Con, PAX Australia, Spiel Essen, Paris Games Week and Lucca Comics & Games through October 2026, with tutorial sessions continuing across the BANDAI CARD GAMES Fest season into early 2027. The worldwide release remains set for summer 2027.