Today, Wizards of the Coast announced that it would be raising the prices of some of its products—mostly booster packs—by 11% starting in July.
“Over the past year, the costs of goods, transportation, and manufacturing have increased significantly and steadily for just about everyone across nearly every industry,” Wizards said. “For Wizards of the Coast, this means that we’ve seen a large spike in the overall costs to produce Magic: The Gathering. As such, we will be increasing prices by around 11%, allowing for regional variation, on select products in our lineup starting in [July and] September.”
“We’ve worked hard to keep Draft Boosters—and later Set Boosters and Collector Boosters—at a relatively consistent price across our premier sets—the four major yearly releases that affect the Standard format—for as long as we were able,” they continued. “However, the price to produce Magic: The Gathering has increased significantly, and we’ve especially seen an uptick in the costs to produce, manufacture, and ship Magic around the world in the past year.”
Specifically, Wizards will be raising the prices of Draft, Set, and Collector Boosters for premiere sets, as well as the prices of Bundles and JumpStart boosters, by around 11%. “Each of these products will increase by slightly different percentages, which we estimate will be approximately 11% across the products that are seeing an increase, allowing for regional variation,” Wizards said.
“The price increase will affect Dominaria United,” which releases in September 2022, “as well as any backlist products starting in July,” the concluded.
It is important to note that the 11% figure provided by Wizards most likely applies to the wholesale price that they charge to stores through distributors. Wizards of the Coast no longer provides MSRPs (manufacturer-suggested retail prices) for their products so it is unclear how this wholesale price increase will impact the retail prices a customer will experience when buying a booster pack.
According to Wizards, the Streets of New Capenna Commander decks were already scheduled to have their price increased. Future Commander decks won’t be impacted by this round of price increases.
Additionally, the prices of non-premiere sets—like Masters sets, Modern Horizons, Secret Lair drops, Challenger Decks, or Universes Beyond products—will remain the same for the time being.
Wizards President Cynthia Williams previewed this announcement in Hasbro’s Q1 2022 earnings call earlier this morning when Hasbro revealed that it would be raising prices across the board this Summer. In the same call, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks revealed that Magic: The Gathering revenue grew by 7% in the first quarter of 2022, while Wizards of the Coast grew its quarterly revenue by 9% to $263 million, resulting in a profit of $106 million (40%+ of total revenue) for the quarter.