That I dont know about now.
Yugioh player base declines little by little either due to it being too expensive, cheating and stealing.
MTG players say it best though, one of them borrowed one of the top tier decks in a yugioh match and finished 5-2 to get top 8 in a regional, I did the same thing and finished 1st although it wasnt a regional. Theirs a thin line between skill and money in yugioh.
to say if Pokemon players would go yugioh if yugioh was a cheap, I dont know, Pokemon and MTG according to this:
http://icv2.com/articles/markets/20740.html
It runs the mass channel over yugioh.
Why?
Simple, look at prize payout.
Pokemon gives out POP promos, promo cards, prerelease cards, badges, play mats, patches, all sorts of stuff.
MTG gives out money prizes, bunch of packs, promos, no telling what else.
yugioh???
really?
yugioh??
it gives you nothing, win a local you might get a couple of packs, 2nd place and beyond gets very little. Regionals you get nothing but a play mat for top 8, something else for top 4, winner probably gets a booster box (like they really need it seeing they would need nothing out of it anyway since 99.9% chance they got the best deck available, most you do is sell or trade to make money)
I quote this from 1 MTG player:
Ok, so I played in a Yugioh Regionals yesterday, which is much like a Magic PTQ, because I didn't have a deck for an extended tournament and because one of my friends who does play Yugioh is moving next week. Take note that they supplied me with a deck which would have cost me probably around $300-500, depending on whether or not I skipped on out some cards and what rarity I could buy them at. I went 5-2 to make top 8 and got a playmat that's worth $60. That's it. If I made the top 4 and top 2 cuts I would have made another $30. Which means, considering a $20 entrance fee, I'd be at least $260 dollars in the hole if I bought this deck myself.
1st place gets a box of the latest set, which has one money card in it. And the chances of pulling it are less than pulling a JtMS. My point is the payout is garbage and I'm thankful my friends didn't ask for a commission because I would have spent money on a game I'm not really a fan of.