WotC Wizards Q1 2023 revenue up 12%

[FitzTheRuke]

Ah wait. I know where the disconnect is. I'm talking about the sales of the NEW books, not the sales of ALL the D&D books put together. I suppose it's possible that when you add the current sales across ALL the D&D books (new AND old) that they could be up this quarter compared to last. DUH. I was only thinking of the recent books ON THEIR OWN. That's the comic-book seller in me, where if it isn't brand new, it doesn't register.

The new books are selling well, but not compared to the old books, but the old books are STILL selling well TOO. The point I was trying to make is actually pointless. Ignore me!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

they also added a new channel with DtC that included digital bundles

They had a big sale on DDB too.

 

[Parmandur]

Ah wait. I know where the disconnect is. I'm talking about the sales of the NEW books, not the sales of ALL the D&D books put together. I suppose it's possible that when you add the current sales across ALL the D&D books (new AND old) that they could be up this quarter compared to last. DUH. I was only thinking of the recent books ON THEIR OWN. That's the comic-book seller in me, where if it isn't brand new, it doesn't register.

The new books are selling well, but not compared to the old books, but the old books are STILL selling well TOO. The point I was trying to make is actually pointless. Ignore me!

No, your experience as a retailer is extremely nice to hear, please keep it up.

 

[Parmandur]

They had a big sale on DDB too.

Also some crazy sales on Amazon: Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is less than $15 right now.

 

[mamba]

Also, your tweet doesn't say anything at all about how D&D books have been selling

from the quarterly statement

"Tabletop gaming revenue increased 13%. Digital and licensed gaming revenue increased 9%, bolstered by the addition of D&D Beyond."

I'd guess that tabletop gaming is books, given that DDB is part of digital.

 

[Sparky McDibben]

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From the call to today it went up $7. For a stock that started April at 52 that's not peanuts.

That jump looks like it's taking place from the 26th to the 27th, which would mean it precedes the earnings call, no?

 

[mamba]

from the quarterly statement

"Tabletop gaming revenue increased 13%. Digital and licensed gaming revenue increased 9%, bolstered by the addition of D&D Beyond."

I'd guess that tabletop gaming is books, given that DDB is part of digital.

actually I have the suspicion that tabletop gaming is both D&D and MtG and that this is just some way of sweeping the fact that D&D did not grow under the rug

This statement meaning D&D only and the hard numbers simply do not add up. So I rather believe the numbers…

D&D + Digital went from 65.6 to 66.1M. Digital grew 9% however so non-digital shrank. Tabletop grew by 13% but MtG grew by 16%, so D&D print must be the one shrinking, given their relative sizes by maybe 15%, as I wrote initially.

I see no other way to reconcile the clearer amounts with the hand-wavy percentages

 

[Parmandur]

actually I have the suspicion that tabletop gaming is both D&D and MtG and that this is just some way of sweeping the fact that D&D did not grow under the rug

This statement meaning D&D only and the hard numbers simply do not add up. So I rather believe the numbers…

D&D + Digital went from 65.6 to 66.1M. Digital grew 9% however so non-digital shrank. Tabletop grew by 13% but MtG grew by 16%, so D&D print must be the one shrinking, given their relative sizes by maybe 15%, as I wrote initially.

I see no other way to reconcile the clearer amounts with the hand-wavy percentages

It way more complicated than that, because Tabletop gaming probavly includes Monopoly, Risk, and so on, as well as Digital including all sorts of random initiatives from different brands that were filed under WotC.

Hasbro has been really struggling lately, so they are definitely using stronger performing products to make up for other failing projects. However, apparently D&D was called out specifically in the Q&A as a bright spot.

 

[mamba]

It way more complicated than that, because Tabletop gaming probavly includes Monopoly, Risk, and so on

no, because that statement, as well as the numbers, were specifically under WotC (+ digital), not Hasbro

Hasbro has been really struggling lately, so they are definitely using stronger performing products to make up for other failing projects.

yes, the rest of Hasbro (not WotC + digital), lost around 20%

I have no axe to grind with WotC or Hasbro, just trying to make sense of what was presented and trying to arrive at the results for D&D itself, despite them not being spelled out directly.

Given what was released this is the best conclusion I can arrive at, and I get to the roughly 15% in two ways now. The hard numbers (my initial post) and the tabletop vs MtG percentages, when taking WotC tabletop (not Hasbro…) as MtG and D&D and taking their relative sizes into account. Taking it as D&D only simply is contradicted by the amounts themselves.

I am pretty sure the 13% D&D growth are simply the 13% WotC tabletop growth misinterpreted. I considered this to be D&D initially too, but it quite literally does not add up.

That does not mean all of this is OGL related. From my understanding WotC does not get the D&D licensing revenue, Hasbro does, so people buying fat plush dragons instead of Golden Vault hurt the WotC tabletop bottom line.

 

[bedir than]

I have no axe to grind with WotC or Hasbro, just trying to make sense of what was presented and trying to arrive at the results for D&D itself, despite them not being spelled out directly.

Again, Hoffer was on the call and is a professional journalist. He relayed what they said about D&D as a game. It was part of the long call, even if it wasn't part of the shared remarks.

 

[mamba]

Again, Hoffer was on the call and is a professional journalist. He relayed what they said about D&D as a game. It was part of the long call, even if it wasn't part of the shared remarks.

I’d have more confidence in that if the numbers reflected that. And quite frankly, when a journalist says one thing and the official numbers say something else, I am inclined to go with the numbers.

As I wrote, I wonder if the 13% tabletop got interpreted as D&D. The numbers are suspiciously similar.

Or maybe D&D in the reply was everything, books, digital, merchandise. There are several ways this can be spun.

What appears to be harder to spin is D&D print sales, as we can deduce those numbers (within limit), and whatever they are, they are not 13% growth rate. Best case (very unlikely), they were flat / slightly negative. The smaller the share of digital in D&D + digital, the better for D&D here. That is simple math. See my original post on this and tell me what I missed.

Since I arrived at roughly the same result by using the 13% tabletop as MtG + D&D and the 16% for MtG that we know, this kinda reaffirms this. Had I arrived at a sufficiently different percentage, I’d say I miss some important info, but I did not.

If you have an article by the guy, I’d be interested, a tweet is too little to go on.

 

[bedir than]

I’d have more confidence in that if the numbers reflected that. As I wrote, I wonder if the 13% tabletop got interpreted as D&D. The numbers are suspiciously similar:

If you have an article by the guy, I’d be interested.

He didn't write it up, just tweeted -- then people screamed at him about how he could know such a thing since it wasn't in the prepared statement

 

[mamba]

He didn't write it up, just tweeted -- then people screamed at him about how he could know such a thing since it wasn't in the prepared statement

that is unfortunate, would have liked to see if the actual question and answer could have shed some light on this