During their Q2 2023 earnings call, Hasbro announced that Magic: The Gathering revenue was down 15% in Q2 2023 year-over-year when compared to Q2 2022. They also revealed that Magic’s latest expansion, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, is already the second best-selling set of all time.
Magic Revenue Down Due to a Shifting Release Schedule
Hasbro had been warning that Magic revenue was projected to be down in the quarter for quite some time due to Wizards of the Coast shifting the release schedule for Magic expansion sets.
Last year, Wizards released four Magic sets in the second quarter of 2022—such as Streets of New Capenna and Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate—which produced an average of $103 million each. In the second quarter of 2023, Wizards released three sets—March of the Machine, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth—which generated an average of $128 million each.
From Hasbro’s Q2 earnings presentation.
So, despite the fact that releasing fewer sets in the first half of 2023 resulted in reduced total revenue in Q2, Magic’s revenue per set did increase in 2023 when compared to 2022.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Will be Magic’s Best-Selling Set
Hasbro is bullish on Magic’s third-quarter revenue thanks to The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. CEO Chris Cocks said that Hasbro expects Tales of Middle-earth to become Magic’s best-selling set of all time within the next six months—and revealed that it is already Magic’s second best-selling set of all time.
Magic’s current best-selling set was Modern Horizons, which made over $200 million in revenue over the course of two years. Cocks expects Tales of Middle-earth to reach that milestone in seven months, then continue to sell well as it becomes an “evergreen” product.