WotC Some Takeaways From Hasbro's Latest Reports

Hasbro's latest quarterly conference call included a number of interesting details regarding Wizards of the Coast and Dungeon & Dragons.

CEO Chris Cocks reported a successful quarter, with the 2024 Player's Handbook selling 50% more copies than anticipated.

He also talked about D&D Beyond, the official D&D online platform. With 19 million registered users, he reported that a massive 60% of D&D's revenue was direct to consumer sales--as recently as 2022 when Hasbro purchased D&D Beyond from Fandom, that figure was 0%.

However, WotC's revenue was down 5% from the same period last year--and this despite Magic: the Gathering reporting a 3% increase. Tabletop sales overall were up 2%, but digital sales have dropped by a whopping 19%. Cocks attributed WotC's drop to the high peak caused by Baldur's Gate 3 last year.

• WotC down 5%
• Magic: the Gathering up 3%
• Tabletop up 2%
• Digital sales down 19%
• Total Hasbro gaming down 6%
• Toys down 10%
• Entertainment down 17% (not counting the eOne sale)

Hasbro's profit for this quarter was $223.2 million; the same period last year saw a $171.1 million loss.

 

[Cergorach]

I'm kind of curious how those number line up compared to pre-pandemic numbers compensated with inflation.

Hasbro 2019:

https://investor.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-reports-revenue-and-operating-profit-growth-full-year-and

Inflation 2019-2024 (23.3%):

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Spoiler alert:
When compensated by inflation, revenue is almost 10% down compared to 2019, profit is down almost 75% compared to 2019.
In 2018 Hasbro had 5800 employees, in December 2023 they had 5600 employees.

Some basic math: When revenue goes down by ~10% and your employees (costs) only go down by 3.5% you have more costs, thus less profit.

 

[cranberry]

"Hasbro's profit for this quarter was $223.2 million; the same period last year saw a $171.1 million loss."

Well it looks like they're doing OK then.

I'm surprised by the digital sales figure decrease. Since "digital is the future" in WoTC's own words, you would think that digital would have a YoY increase. Next year, they won't be able to use BG3 as an excuse.

 

[aco175]

Wonder what the boss received as a bonus for the quarter?

 

[TwoSix]

"Hasbro's profit for this quarter was $223.2 million; the same period last year saw a $171.1 million loss."

Well it looks like they're doing OK then.

I'm surprised by the digital sales figure decrease. Since "digital is the future" in WoTC's own words, you would think that digital would have a YoY increase. Next year, they won't be able to use BG3 as an excuse.

Spawning a mega-hit like BG3 is, optimistically, a once-a-decade occurrence. That revenue is always going to be a weird outlier.

If 60% of D&D's revenue is now from D&D Beyond, I'd say their pivot to digital has been broadly successful.

 

[Parmandur]

If 60% of D&D's revenue is now from D&D Beyond, I'd say their pivot to digital has been broadly successful.

Well, no, what the 60% number is saying ia that 60% of D&D revenue is now from direct to consumer sales: that is, between Beyond and the bundles, D&D makes more money from their own store than they do selling st retail.

 

[Selas]

Don't worry; someone will somehow spin all of this as the 2024 PHB IS underperforming, or another WotC scandal getting worse

On a serious note, selling 50% over the anticipated numbers bodes well; I just wish they gave a concrete number on physical sales vs digital only

 

[mamba]

If 60% of D&D's revenue is now from D&D Beyond, I'd say their pivot to digital has been broadly successful.

60% can largely be the physical + digital bundle too (or physical books only). We have no idea how many are digital, but they definitely successfully reduced the dependence on a middle-man.

 

[Parmandur]

60% can largely be the physical + digital bundle too (or physical books only). We have no idea how many are digital, but they definitely successfully reduced the dependence on a middle-man.

Yeah, this does line up with the sudden downturn in Bookscan numbers for books precisely when they introduced the digital-physical bundles with Dragonlance.

 

[TwoSix]

Well, no, what the 60% number is saying ia that 60% of D&D revenue is now from direct to consumer sales: that is, between Beyond and the bundles, D&D makes more money from their own store than they do selling st retail.

Aren't the bundles sold through Beyond? I haven't looked at them myself, but I thought Beyond was WotC's only portal for direct sales.