ICv2 Reports On RPGs Growth This Year

ICv2 has published its latest quarterly hobby channel game rankings for Spring 2022. The Top 5 contains D&D twice (once from WotC, and once from third parties Goodman Games and Darrington Press/Critical Role), along with two licensed Hasbro (owner of WotC) properties, plus Pathfinder.

"RPGs are the story of the year so far," a hobby distributor told ICv2. "D&D’s king by leaps and bounds, don’t get me wrong, but the number of RPGs that were [significant contributors to] sales was 40 different brands."

The chart is based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. As always you can see the compiled chart going back to 2004 here.

RPGs the 'Story of the Year'

Explosive Growth in Players, Sales

icv2.com

 

[teitan]

Random googling (grains of salt)..

Global streaming market.. $59 billion
Global publishing market.. $110 billion
Global movie theater market.. $60 billion
Global gaming market.. $200 billion.
Global toy market..$129 billion

Global tabletop market (which includes board games like Monopoly and Life with rpgs)...$7 billion

This is what I mean by niche market. Slightly more than 10% of the nearest comp and that's lumped in with other board games.

I agree WotC is doing great and the hobby is likely more popular than its ever been. But there's still a long way to go before it's no longer niche (imho).

Well it comes from Hasbro themselves where they stand as far as their profits being half of their operating profits. It’s an incredibly strong performance considering a core brand like Transformers, not niche, isn’t doing as well as D&D.

 

[darjr]

I think some of the developers from Renegrade have worked with WotC on D&D.

Adventurers League and, I think other freelance work.

 

[Von Ether]

I think some of the developers from Renegrade have worked with WotC on D&D.

Adventurers League and, I think other freelance work.

Is it time to look at the legacy of the DMs Guild Adept program?

 

[darjr]

Is it time to look at the legacy of the DMs Guild Adept program?

That might be interesting. New thread?

 

[Gammadoodler]

Well it comes from Hasbro themselves where they stand as far as their profits being half of their operating profits. It’s an incredibly strong performance considering a core brand like Transformers, not niche, isn’t doing as well as D&D.

It's a bit of a question of what you want to use as your performance measure. Looking at the 10-k, it looks like "WotC and Digital gaming" makes up around 20% of revenue ($1.3 of $6.4b). So, 4 out of 5 dollars Hasbro collects are from other properties.. That said, WoTC is remarkably profitable (42% operating profit..wow..) as you've mentioned.

I haven't seen a breakdown of MtG vs. D&D within that category, but they are in different brand portfolios. The one with MtG in it(Franchise Brands at $2.8b) is 3x larger than the one with D&D (Hasbro Gaming at $850m), and MtG is consistently bullet number one in any management commentary related to growth. Can't draw too much from this, but it sure looks to me like MtG is carrying most of the weight. This would seem to be consistent with how we see game stores operate and how we come across WotC products in other retail locations. I'dove to be wrong though.

To be clear, I'm not meaning to suggest that there's anything bad related to how D&D is doing. My only point has been that the tabletop RPG industry is still small relative to more mainstream sources of entertainment.

 

[Retreater]

The selection is very full, with some limited edition covers too. (Likely ones that are being sought out in the collectors' market.) I have a feeling no RPGs are selling well for them ... which is one of the reasons I'm trying to start some in-person games there. You can walk by the shelf and see 5 copies of Van Richten's Guide sitting there.

Went by the store today. Thought I would share a couple pics in case some thought I was exaggerating.
So we're a town of 60,000 people with not a huge gaming community. Do you think they went overboard with ordering?

 

[payn]

Went by the store today. Thought I would share a couple pics in case some thought I was exaggerating.
So we're a town of 60,000 people with not a huge gaming community. Do you think they went overboard with ordering?

Looks fairly typical, though my metro area is way way bigger than 60K.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Went by the store today. Thought I would share a couple pics in case some thought I was exaggerating.
So we're a town of 60,000 people with not a huge gaming community. Do you think they went overboard with ordering?

Without considering the other operating characteristics of the store, its kind of hard to say, especially in light of all the supply chain disruptions, inflation, etc. that's been going on for the last couple years.

Generally speaking, I haven't seen a lot of retail markdowns on D&D books, and there isn't really an obsolescence concern the same way there is with other published materials (yet). Holding low-volume inventory isn't great. If it never moves, it's definitely bad. But if there isn't a lot of competition for the shelf space, and the books get sold at retail eventually, it's probably ok. But that's a fair number of ifs.

 

[Mezuka]

Without considering the other operating characteristics of the store, its kind of hard to say, especially in light of all the supply chain disruptions, inflation, etc. that's been going on for the last couple years.

Generally speaking, I haven't seen a lot of retail markdowns on D&D books, and there isn't really an obsolescence concern the same way there is with other published materials (yet). Holding low-volume inventory isn't great. If it never moves, it's definitely bad. But if there isn't a lot of competition for the shelf space, and the books get sold at retail eventually, it's probably ok. But that's a fair number of ifs.

WoTC expects payements within the usual 30 days of purchase. If the store doesn't sell it comes out of profit they make on other products. That is not good.

The best way to operate is to set-up a pre-order system among your loyal customer base and buy a few extra units for the shelves.

 

[Gammadoodler]

WoTC expects payements within the usual 30 days of purchase. If the store doesn't sell it comes out of profit they make on other products. That is not good.

The best way to operate is to set-up a pre-order system among your loyal customer base and buy a few extra units for the shelves.

I agree you don't want slow-moving inventory on the shelves, and there are things you can do to prevent it. But, if you are going to sell it eventually (within some reasonable operating window) at retail price, you recoup your costs and (presumably) make a profit. In isolation, it's a net win.

The bad parts involve the books taking up space you could have used for other faster-moving inventory, whether the gap between paying WoTC and the eventual sale date causes short term cash flow problems, and if there are costs in excess of the expected profits relating to physically managing the inventory.

All of these bad parts are going to be particular to the store.

It's not going to ever be good to buy stuff that sells slowly, but it doesn't have to be an egregious error. And considering the difficulty with getting some products on the shelves this past year, it's an understandable error to make.