After I tripled my money by pulling pricey Pokémon cards out of digital packs on the Rips app, I immediately knew what I had to do next: keep on ripping. It was time to lock in, boost my volatility settings, and start spending real money opening even more expensive packs.

These digital card packs, primed for fast ripping and even faster rewards, are rising in popularity. People have downloaded the Rips app over 6 million times since its launch in October 2025, with half of those downloads happening in the past two months, according to data from Apptopia. You pay money to rip digital packs and win physical cards, but you also have the instant option to sell them back.

Rips exemplifies the current online moment where I’m bombarded with new and inventive ways to digitally gamble everything away. From sports betting to prediction markets, the smartphone in my pocket is the hottest place to lose it all while trying to make a quick buck. Rips did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Even before I tried Rips, I was well acquainted with the platform from incessant TikTok ads. Other notable apps offer a similar format, like RipIt from influencer Logan Paul. These platforms capitalize on the popularity of ripping open physical card packs, usually Pokémon trading cards, to find rare cards that sell for a lot of money. The app is only for users aged 18 and older.

Courtesy of Reece Rogers

Courtesy of Reece Rogers

Since Rips offers to immediately buy back cards, users have a chance to cash out with thousands of dollars more than when they started ripping packs earlier in the day. Well, unless you’re me—then you’re just lighting money on fire and leaving without any cash or cards.

Time to Rip

When I first opened Rips, I was greeted with what appeared to be an AI-generated image of a neon vending machine, filled with card packs and drenched in dramatic lighting as it stood alone in a dark, nondescript warehouse. The app’s full name is Rips by Triumph—Triumph also operates a popular app where users pay to play arcade games and potentially win money.

The core mechanic of the Rips app is ripping open shiny, single-card packs. Users can pick from Pokémon, Basketball, or One Piece cards. The cheapest option is the Pokémon Starter Pack, which costs $1, and it goes all the way up to the Pokémon Diamond Pack, which costs $2,500 to rip open digitally. You can change your “volatility level” in the settings for many of these packs. A higher volatility means that you have increased odds of picking cards on either end of the spectrum and a lower chance of pulling something in the midrange price tier.

If a user opens a $1 pack, then the cheapest card they could pull is worth 10 cents, and the most expensive is $20. On the other end of the price range, the $2,500 packs, the ripper is guaranteed a card valued at $850 at the lowest, but the priciest card they could pull is worth $82,166.