Credit: Guinness World Records
Pokémon celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and its continuing pop-cultural dominance is on display in special events, new collaborations, and record sales. The franchise that turned countless kids into collectors even has a new, if niche, Guinness World Records title: “The highest price paid for a videogame likeness corn snack.”
The corn snack in question is none other than the online sensation Cheetozard, which sold for $87,840 in an auction by Goldin in March 2025. Even a casual observer can’t deny that the oddly shaped protrusions on the three-inch-long Flamin’ Hot Cheeto resemble the wings and tail of an equally fiery dragon. But for Pokémon fans, it’s not just any dragon. It’s a miniature version of Charizard, a fan-favorite character who appears on some of the hobby’s rarest cards. The resemblance earned it the nickname “Cheetozard,” and it was mounted on a custom card with the name.
According to Goldin, the Cheeto was found and preserved between 2018 and 2022 by Georgia card shop 1st and Goal Collectibles, which posted on Instagram that they “forgot” about it until cleaning out the safe. Guinness World Records reported that it had been initially bought on eBay for $350. Considering the result of the Goldin auction, the purchase paid off.
The category of “videogame likeness corn snacks” may seem awfully narrow, but Cheetozard did have some competition, even from other Goldin auctions. Mere months after Cheetozard’s attention-grabbing sale, Food & Wine reported that Goldin had more character-shaped Cheetos available in an auction that closed on May 3, 2025. There was “Pikacheeto,” shaped like the flagship Pokémon character Pikachu, also mounted on its own personalized card. The same auction included a Cheeto resembling Mario, the eponymous high-jumping, pipe-traveling plumber from Nintendo’s Super Mario video games, preserved in a Nintendo Game Boy frame. However, the online listings do not include sale prices or bid history, suggesting they did not achieve the same success as Cheetozard.
Pokémon has appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records many times before, in more conventional categories. In November 1999, it became the first video game to make the cover of Time magazine. In 2024, it was declared the world’s best-selling media franchise, beating out longtime favorites like Mickey Mouse & Friends and genre-defining pop culture phenomena like Star Wars. Last February, the Pikachu Illustrator card that sold for $16.49 million at Goldin also set a record price not just for Pokémon cards, but for any trading card sold at auction.
