On today’s earnings call, Hasbro’s CEO Brian Goldner revealed that Magic: the Gathering’s revenues increased “significantly” in the first quarter of 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19.
The first quarter was MTG Arena’s “strongest period since launch,” Goldner said, and saw an “acceleration” in growth. Preorders for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, Magic’s newest set, were the strongest ever for a new set on MTG Arena.
Goldner also said that Hasbro was seeing a “high level of engagement” in MTG Arena, with 2.1 billion games had been played and average weekly usage has increased one hour up to nine hours per week per user.
Those increases in digital Magic were shared with tabletop Magic. Goldner said that tabletop revenues were up in the quarter “in a substantial way” thanks to the release of Theros Beyond Death in January and that the game saw an increase in “overall engagement and satisfaction.”
The combined success of digital and tabletop resulted in an increase in new players despite a cancellation of many in-person events in March and beyond. Many local games stores have been closed since at least the end of March, and the last major in-person Magic event, MagicFest Lyon, was held on the first weekend of March. Since then, Wizards has cancelled Players Tour Series 2 and the Magic Pro League’s 2020 season, cancelled Players Tour Finals Houston and Mythic Invitational Ikoria, and delayed the tabletop release of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths to May 15. Meanwhile, ChannelFireball cancelled all MagicFests through July and Star City Games similarly cancelled its SCG Tour events until mid-May.
Goldner confirmed that MTG Arena is still scheduled to come to MacOS and mobile in 2020 and that MTG Arena’s distribution deal with Tencent is still on track.
Hasbro warned that, while first quarter revenues were strong, it was only partially affected by the spread of COVID-19. The company believes that the second quarter will feel a much stronger—but ultimately unpredictable—negative impact from the current pandemic.