ICv2 Reports Disappointing Year For Hobby Games Channel: TTRPGs Down, D&D Declines 30%

According to ICv2, 2023 was a tough year for hobby game sales. The US and Canada market increased by just 1%, which was less than the rate of inflation, growing from $2.86 billion in 2022 to $2.89 billion in 2023.

The hobby game sales channel is defined as specialist game and card stores--it doesn't include Amazon, direct sales, etc. It does include Kickstarter.

Top Hobby Channel TTRPGs (2023)

1. Dungeons & Dragons (WotC)
2. Pathfinder (Paizo)
3. Cyberpunk Red (R. Talsorian)
4. World of Darkness (Renegade Game Studios)
5. Starfinder (Paizo)
6. Warhammer 40K (Cubicle 7)
7. Marvel Multiverse Roleplaying (Marvel)
8. Kobold 5E Books (Kobold Press)
9. Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium)
10. Pirate Borg (Free League)

The only two categories to grow in 2023 were collectibles and miniatures. All other categories--board games, card games, and roleplaying games--were down. ICv2 reports a 30% hobby store sales decline for Dungeons & Dragons specifically, citing the impending new edition and lackluster movie performance, and the tail end of a pandemic-fuelled high; they also report that while the OGL crisis of last year impacted some lifestyle gamers, newer players as a whole were oblivious to the situation. The other important element ICv2 mentioned was D&D's increasing move to digital, which impacted retail sales.

Older D&D players, says ICv2, are also migrating to other games, with Pathfinder as one of the major beneficiaries.

The last 6 years has seen much larger growth rates--partly fuelled by the pandemic--ranging from 10% to 30%. 2022 saw a 7% growth over 2021. Despite the small increase, 2023 represents the 15th year of growth for the overall market. ICv2 does predict a market decline in 2024, though.

ICv2 conducts periodical surveys and speaks to publishers, distributors, and retailers, along with publicly available company information and Kickstarter data.

 

[Velderan]

Physical retail shops are closing all over the country. Thirty years ago there were 8 or 10 FLGS within an easy drive of me. Today, there's zero.

I think that depends where you live. 30 years ago when I lived in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, I had 1 FLGS within 10 miles and probably 4 if I expanded that out to 20 miles. Today I live in a southern suburb of the Twin Cities about 30 miles from where I grew up and there's 3 FLGS I can think of within 10 miles of my house and probably 8 if I expand that out to 20 miles. A large chain that existed 30 years ago went under in 2007, but that's a longer story.

The one thing that is definitely different is what those stores make their money on though: stuff like Pokemon, Magic, and other card games are what keeps those stores in business. Most of them have a fairly small selection of TTRPG stuff and hardly anything besides WotC 5e products. As @payn and WIblockhead..er... @MNblockhead noted the largest store in the area carries a ton of different products to cater to a wide audience.

 

[Parmandur]

I think that depends where you live. 30 years ago when I lived in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, I had 1 FLGS within 10 miles and probably 4 if I expanded that out to 20 miles. Today I live in a southern suburb of the Twin Cities about 30 miles from where I grew up and there's 3 FLGS I can think of within 10 miles of my house and probably 8 if I expand that out to 20 miles. A large chain that existed 30 years ago went under in 2007, but that's a longer story.

The one thing that is definitely different is what those stores make their money on though: stuff like Pokemon, Magic, and other card games are what keeps those stores in business. Most of them have a fairly small selection of TTRPG stuff and hardly anything besides WotC 5e products. As @payn and WIblockhead..er... @MNblockhead noted the largest store in the area carries a ton of different products to cater to a wide audience.

My FLGS is actually a comic book store with a broad inventory.

 

[Velderan]

My FLGS is actually a comic book store with a broad inventory.

The closest FLGS to me has a huge open area with tables for play and a coffee bar. They have a small selection of TTRPG stuff from publishers besides WotC but most of their inventory is board games. I can think of at least 1 other FLGS nearby that has a similar business model with a focus on MtG but the coffee bar seems to make them decent money.

 

[payn]

The closest FLGS to me has a huge open area with tables for play and a coffee bar. They have a small selection of TTRPG stuff from publishers besides WotC but most of their inventory is board games. I can think of at least 1 other FLGS nearby that has a similar business model with a focus on MtG but the coffee bar seems to make them decent money.

I know you are a fellow twin cities dweller. Honestly, outside the Source, there really isnt a major RPG presence. Barnes and Noble tends to have a better selection than most game stores. Cards, board, war, then roleplaying games in that order it seems.

 

[Velderan]

I know you are a fellow twin cities dweller. Honestly, outside the Source, there really isnt a major RPG presence. Barnes and Noble tends to have a better selection than most game stores. Cards, board, war, then roleplaying games in that order it seems.

Which makes me wonder what things actually were like 30 years ago. The Shinders I went to had a couple shelves dedicated to TTRPG stuff, but I'm likely remembering it to be better than it actually was and honestly I probably bought most of my D&D stuff at the nearby Waldenbooks. I know Shinders made a lot of money on comics and sports cards back then.

 

[payn]

Which makes me wonder what things actually were like 30 years ago. The Shinders I went to had a couple shelves dedicated to TTRPG stuff, but I'm likely remembering it to be better than it actually was and honestly I probably bought most of my D&D stuff at the nearby Waldenbooks. I know Shinders made a lot of money on comics and sports cards back then.

Shinders was all niche purpose. Comics, sports collectable cards, fantasy sports mags, fantasy novels, RPG materials...etc The selection would be by todays standard average I think. It seemed more impressive given that almost no other retailers sold this stuff and there was no internet at the time.

 

[Parmandur]

I know you are a fellow twin cities dweller. Honestly, outside the Source, there really isnt a major RPG presence. Barnes and Noble tends to have a better selection than most game stores. Cards, board, war, then roleplaying games in that order it seems.

I mean, has it ever really been different? Was there any point where someone ran an universities store on just TTRPG materal...?

 

[payn]

I mean, has it ever really been different? Was there any point where someone ran an universities store on just TTRPG materal...?

Back then? No, but its much different now. There are game stores that are game stores. You cant go into a Dreamers Vault (local chain) and walk out with comics, sports mags, or a copy of Swank. Even game stores are different in that game stores used to just be piles of Monopoly and specialty chess sets.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I think that depends where you live. 30 years ago when I lived in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, I had 1 FLGS within 10 miles and probably 4 if I expanded that out to 20 miles. Today I live in a southern suburb of the Twin Cities about 30 miles from where I grew up and there's 3 FLGS I can think of within 10 miles of my house and probably 8 if I expand that out to 20 miles. A large chain that existed 30 years ago went under in 2007, but that's a longer story.

The one thing that is definitely different is what those stores make their money on though: stuff like Pokemon, Magic, and other card games are what keeps those stores in business. Most of them have a fairly small selection of TTRPG stuff and hardly anything besides WotC 5e products. As @payn and WIblockhead..er... @MNblockhead noted the largest store in the area carries a ton of different products to cater to a wide audience.

I was thinking on this reply, and this is not what I would consider a FLGS. Or a game store.

When I envision a game store, it is a storefront packed with a huge variety of RPG material, minis, bins of dice, etc, with small areas devoted to Osprey books, and occasional support for rockets or trains.

 

[GreyLord]

30% hobby store sales decline for Dungeons & Dragons and Older D&D players, are also migrating to other games - Yep this 100% makes sense, the peak is over and the fad is dispensing, the foundational fanbase severely alienated and dispersed thanks to mean spirited spite and venom from wotc. This trend will only continue, just wait till "6e" drops, then the real "pain" begins, and rightfully so. How's that "modern audience" working out for you wotc? You could have had it all, new, old and all in-between, 2014 started strong as heck and then over the last few years, absolute awfulness at mach 10.

Very late in the thread to respond to this, BUT....

I think it is too early to say anything like that. There is ALWAYS a drop in sales of the current edition when it is known another version or edition is coming out, at least for the past 20 years. 3e sales dropped like a rock (and left a bunch of FLGS's with third party compatible 3.0 products hanging on the stilts) when people were expecting a 3.5 release.

3.5 sales actually dropped quite a bit with 4e's announcement and prior to 4e coming out.

4e sales dropped quite a bit for the few years prior to 5e being released.

Sales dropping actually just follow the usual pattern, and that they haven't fallen by greater than 50% means that 5e is doing better during this period than some other periods before versions/edition releases.

If this is actually trend due to something other than a new edition coming out and people holding out for the new edition will need to be seen AFTER the new edition comes out.

If it truly is fans getting tired of RPGs or D&D, it probably won't be seen as a trend for at least another year and a half to two years.

I expect that sales will jump up for 2024 and 2025 with the release of the new version of 5e. Only after that will it be seen if it is truly fan fatigue or not.