PokeRev

It would be rather impossible not to include PokeRev. With an astonishing 2.3 million subscribers, and a seven-day-a-week upload schedule, the man better known as “The Rev” is probably best known for opening ultra-expensive classic sets.

Rev’s channel is one of utter decadence, where each new set of Pokémon cards is opened on an eye-watering scale. With the most recent release, Pokémon 151, he had opened over 400 packs before the cards were even available to buy. While the same may be true of some other YouTubers, including Danny Phantump (see below), Rev doesn’t do this to explore pull-rates, or gain statistical information, but rather just for the hell of it.

Most sets will be completed just through openings on the channel, where he tears through packs so fast that I once believed the footage was sped up—until I saw him doing the same live. Rev streams live once a fortnight, when he opens a classic booster box, having sold its packs to viewers ahead of the stream. Cards then get shipped out to the buyers, where people are sending upward of $800 per pack

Like PokiChloe, Rev also runs an online store—the PokeCave—albeit one far more focused on classic sets and his own line of mystery packs. It’s via this that he appears to acquire the pallets of cards opened on his channel, thus getting them ahead of street dates (which is naturally infuriating if you’re writing about the same sets for a major gaming website but need to stick to embargoes…).

Rev’s style is…well, passionate perhaps doesn’t quite get us there. He’s ferocious, and you might want to turn your speakers down a bit before you hit play. He also appears to find pulling lots of good cards to be something of an existential crisis, frequently declaring, “WHAT EVEN IS THIS?!” and genuinely appearing to worry that his reality has come unstuck.

I sometimes find Rev’s absolute dismissal of anything less than an Illustration Rare a little hard to stomach, and while it’s all family friendly, it’s a channel I’d keep my kids away from, given how much the opulent scale devalues opening an ordinary pack or two. But I cannot deny the appeal, and love watching his fortnightly live streams.