Modern Tarot Revival (2010s–2020s)

Economic growth

Market data

According to market analysis by Technavio, the global tarot cards market is projected to grow by USD 209.7 million between 2025 and 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3%.^[1] Other analyses project the market reaching USD 1.41 billion by 2035 with a CAGR of 8.5%.^[2]

Growth is geographically concentrated in North America and Asia Pacific, with North America contributing approximately 15% of growth due to integration into the "wellness industrial complex" and social media influence. Asia Pacific contributes approximately 18%, driven by youth adoption and syncretism with gaming culture and traditional Eastern divination.^[1]

Publisher landscape

Legacy publishers have scaled operations significantly during the revival. Llewellyn Worldwide, founded in 1901, has doubled its tarot production in recent years to approximately six new decks annually.^[3] U.S. Games Systems, publisher of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, reported that tarot deck sales doubled in the five years leading to 2021 and tripled during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5]

The NPD BookScan reported that in 2021, the broader "Mind, Body, Spirit" category contributed significantly to book sales exceeding 800 million units for the first time.^[17] Major retailers including Target and Barnes & Noble have integrated tarot into their mainstream inventory.

Crowdfunding impact

Kickstarter emerged as a primary funding mechanism for independent tarot deck creation, allowing artists to bypass traditional publishing gatekeepers. The platform's Publishing category, which includes tarot, experienced 16% growth in launched campaigns by 2025.^[6]

This "direct-to-consumer" model enabled premium pricing ($40–$80 per deck) through "deluxe" features including gilded edges, heavy cardstock, and companion guidebooks. The shift cultivated a collector market where consumers own multiple decks, sustaining sales volume beyond functional need for a single deck.

Digital transformation

Mobile applications

Mobile applications have democratized tarot access. Labyrinthos Academy, developed by Tina Gong, has accumulated over 1 million downloads on Google Play alone.^[7] The app gamifies learning using spaced-repetition algorithms similar to language learning applications, framing tarot as a psychological self-reflection tool rather than mystical practice.

Galaxy Tarot, launched in 2010, has achieved over 2.3 million total downloads, focusing on replicating traditional reading experience with "Card of the Day" notification features that integrate tarot into daily routines.^[8]

Social media and TarotTok

Social media platforms, particularly TikTok and Instagram, have fundamentally altered tarot delivery mechanisms. By 2021, the hashtag #tarot had accumulated over 6.3 billion views on TikTok, with #tiktoktarot reaching 58 million views.^[9]

The dominant format is "Pick a Card" readings, where creators present multiple piles and viewers select one to receive a specific message. These videos often include captions such as "If this is on your FYP [For You Page], it is a sign," creating a theological interaction between users and recommendation algorithms. Users interpret algorithmic content delivery as synchronicity rather than data-driven recommendation.^[10]

Critics note this format relies on the Barnum Effect (acceptance of vague statements as personally accurate) and may constitute "engagement farming" targeting vulnerable users.

Demographics

Generational adoption

Generation Z and Millennials constitute the primary demographic drivers. Data from the Springtide Research Institute indicates that 51% of young people aged 13–25 engage in tarot cards or fortune-telling. Of this group, 17% practice daily and 25% weekly.^[11]

This adoption correlates with rejection of traditional religious institutions. As the "nones" (religiously unaffiliated) demographic grows, tarot offers access to the transcendent or ritualistic without institutional dogma, allowing personal authority in spiritual interpretation.^[4]

LGBTQ+ communities

The intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and tarot practice represents one of the strongest statistical correlations in the revival. According to Pew Research Center data (2025), LGBTQ+ adults are three times as likely as non-LGBTQ+ adults to consult tarot cards (33% vs. 9%).^[12]

Tarot appeals to queer communities through its liminality—cards operate on symbols that can be reinterpreted. Modern practitioners "queer" traditional gendered archetypes ( The Emperor, The Empress) by reading them as energies rather than biological genders. The market has responded with decks featuring androgynous, trans, and non-binary figures, allowing users representation in the "hero's journey" of the Major Arcana.

Psychological turn

A defining characteristic of the revival is widespread secularization of practice. For many modern users, tarot cards function as psychological tools rather than magical objects—a "paper mirror" for the subconscious.

Jessica Dore, a licensed social worker, exemplifies this movement by utilizing tarot to explain concepts from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).^[13] In this framework, drawing a card like The Tower (sudden change) is not a prediction but a prompt for discussing how the client handles loss of control.

Dore's work, publicized in The New York Times and her bookTarot for Change, legitimized tarot for skeptical, educated audiences by positioning it as a tool for "meaning-making" and "emotional resilience."^[14]

Tarot has been integrated into the global wellness economy (valued at approximately $4.4 trillion), marketed alongside yoga, meditation apps, and crystals as self-care. Emerging academic research explores tarot in clinical settings as a "projective technique" for externalizing internal conflicts.

Fashion and luxury

Tarot appropriation by luxury fashion marks its journey into cultural mainstream. Christian Dior's Spring 2021 Haute Couture collection, designed by Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri, was explicitly based on the 15th-century Visconti-Sforza tarot, featuring gowns interpreting cards like The High Priestess, The Fool, and Death.^[15]

This collaboration served dual functions: legitimizing tarot as high-culture art history linked to the Italian Renaissance, and aestheticizing the imagery by stripping potentially threatening occult associations in favor of dreamlike, surrealist presentation.

Controversies

Romani critique

While tarot cards originated in 15th-century Italy as a game, the "fortune teller" archetype is linked to Romani stereotypes. Romani activists argue that modern, non-Romani practitioners are monetizing a survival trade (fortune-telling,drabarimos) practiced by Romani women facing exclusion from the formal economy, while the Romani people continue to face systemic discrimination.

Sephora "Starter Witch Kit"

In 2018, beauty retailer Sephora planned to launch a "Starter Witch Kit" including a tarot deck, rose quartz, and white sage. Indigenous activists protested the inclusion of white sage, a sacred plant to many Native American tribes whose commercial over-harvesting threatens availability for traditional ceremonies.^[16]The backlash caused Sephora to cancel the product before release, signaling growing consumer consciousness about corporate commodification of spiritual practices.

Digital ethics

The anonymity of digital tarot has enabled scams including account impersonation and predatory practices targeting vulnerable users (e.g., promising to "return an ex-lover" for payment). Community self-policing through blocklists and educational content has emerged in response.