Duel Monsters, produced by NAS and animated by Gallop, aired from April 2000 to September 2004.

Yugi loves to play games and, at the beginning of the series, is solving the Millennium Puzzle (千年パズル, Sennen Pazuru), an Ancient Egyptian artifact, hoping that it will grant him his wish of making friends.

Yugi eventually completes the Puzzle, causing his body to play host to a mysterious spirit with the personality of a gambler.

As the series progresses, Yugi and his friends learn that the spirit is actually that of a nameless Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who had lost his memories after being sealed inside the Puzzle.

As Yugi and his companions attempt to help the Pharaoh regain his memories, they find themselves going through many trials as they wager their lives facing off against those who wield the other Millennium Items (千年アイテム, Sennen Aitemu) and the dark power of the Shadow Games.

[2] Although the end result was a manga about games, some horror elements influenced certain aspects of the story.

He decided to create a fighting manga where the main character does not hit anybody, but also struggled with that limitation.

[5] Takahashi said that the card game held the strongest influence in the manga, because it "happened to evoke the most response" from readers.

[7] In a 2004 interview, the editors of the United States Shonen Jump mentioned that Americans were surprised when reading the stories in the first seven volumes, as they had not appeared on television as a part of the Yu-Gi-Oh!

[laughs]"[6] The English language release by 4Kids has been subject to censorship to make it more appropriate for children; for example, mentions of death or violence were replaced by references to "being sent to the Shadow Realm".

Yūgi (遊戯) is also the name of the protagonist, while Yūgiō is also the title the second personality inhabiting his body holds as an invincible game master.

Additionally, the character names "Yūgi" and "Jōnouchi" are based on the word yūjō (友情, "friendship").

[10][11] Shueisha collected its chapters in thirty-eight tankōbon volumes, released from March 4, 1997,[12] to June 4, 2004.

Duel Monsters series, commissioned, produced and edited by 4Kids Entertainment, which aired in North America between September and November 2006.

: Bonds Beyond Time is a 3-D film that premiered in Japan in January 2010 and in North America in February 2011.

The Dark Side of Dimensions, which was produced to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the franchise, premiered in Japan in April 2016 and in January 2017 in North America.

[49] An original net animation (ONA) series consisting of promotional shorts, titled Yu-Gi-Oh!

Card Game The Chronicles, is set to premiere on YouTube in April 2025 with new episodes debuting every month.

[50] A novel adaptation of some of the beginning parts of the manga and the Death-T arc, written by Katsuhiko Chiba [ja].

Yugi accepts, and when the game begins, they use a special variation of Magic & Wizards called the "Bingo Rule," which prevents the used of a specific card in each player's deck.

The art book was released on December 16, 2011, and contains a number of illustrations done for the bunkoban releases of the manga, compilations of color illustrations found in the manga, and brand new art drawn for the book.

It also features an ani-manga version of the film and is the only supplemental work released for the Toei anime.

First launched in Japan in 1999, the game has received various changes over the years, such as the inclusion of new monster types to coincide with the release of new anime series.

Jakala added that at one moment the series "reminded me of Neil Gaiman's work: Yugi finds himself drawn into a magical world of ancient forces where there are definite rules that must be obeyed."

Jakala concluded that the fact the series uses games as plot devices "opens up a lot of story possibilities" and that he feared that the series had the potential to "simply devolve into a tie-in for the popular card game.

as number three of his five personal favorite series to edit, stating that he thinks "the story is actually pretty solid for a shonen manga" and that "you can tell it was written by an older man because of the obsession with death, and what might come after death, which dominates the final story arc," enjoying all the RPG and card gaming terminology found within the series.

Cullen speculated that the series was not popular among Japanese parents, due to it being more intended for teenagers rather than the young kids that make up the audience for franchises such as Pokémon.

was uploaded on YouTube on July 15, 2006, by Martin Billany (also known as LittleKuriboh) titled Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series – Episode One Redux.

After becoming popular, it started trend among anime communities to produce abridged series for different works.

[71][72] In 2024 US Olympic track and field trials, Noah Lyles showed off Yu-Gi-Oh!