This morning, Hasbro, Inc. announced that its revenue increased 9% in the second quarter of 2019, which was led by growth in Magic: the Gathering. Hasbro is the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, the maker of Magic.
Magic: the Gathering lead the increase in Hasbro’s overall revenue, and Magic’s revenue growth came in ahead of Hasbro’s expectations. On their earnings call, Hasbro revealed that Magic’s largest gains were in tabletop, where the game saw a 12% increase in in-store participation, with Modern Horizons being a big contributor to that growth.
Digital Magic, namely MTG Arena, represented the second largest source of growth for Magic in the second quarter. There is “real momentum” behind MTG Arena, Hasbro said, and they plan on officially launching the game in the next four months. Mythic Championship III Las Vegas in June had 1.4 million viewer hours over the course of the tournament, making Magic the number two property on Twitch globally during the event.
Hasbro believes that the second quarter numbers fully address concerns around the relationship between digital and tabletop Magic. Will digital Magic would siphon players away from tabletop Magic?
“The answer is emphatically no,” Hasbro said. “In fact, tabletop has shown increased momentum” hand-in-hand with digital growth.
Hasbro has a lot of confidence in the continued growth of Magic over the next few years. There are 38 million Magic players—both active and lapsed—that can continue to be encouraged to play the game, they said. Wizards of the Coast has doubled in size in the last five years and Hasbro plans on doubling Wizards size over the next five years, as well.