Hasbro reported today that Magic: The Gathering revenue grew 20% in the third quarter of 2023 when compared to the same quarter in 2022. Wizards of the Coasts’ revenue as a whole grew 40% to $423.6 million (up from $303.5 million) with an operating profit of $203.4 million (up from $102.2 million), while Hasbro’s overall revenue declined by 10% in the quarter.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Reaches $200 Million in Sales
Magic’s continued growth was driven by the release of Wilds of Eldraine and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, the latter of which became just the second set to reach $200 million in sales. (The other set to reach that mark was Modern Horizons 2 in 2021.)
Source: Hasbro
The rest of Wizards’ revenue increase was attributed to two major digital non-Magic releases: Baldur’s Gate 3 and Monopoly Go! These games doubled Wizards’ digital gaming revenue and are expected to bring in somewhere around $100 million over the next few years.
Magic’s 2023 revenue is up 11% year-over-year, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks revealed on today’s investor call. The game is on track to have another “record year”—just the latest in a series of 13 record years over the last 14 years.
The Magic Netflix Show Lives!
When addressing Hasbro’s sale of eOne Film and TV, Cocks emphasized that Hasbro would continue to be involved in the film and TV industry through its partnerships. One of those partnerships, he said, was “an animated Magic series with Netflix”—the first time that the show has been mentioned since 2021.
The show was initially announced in June 2019 and was going to be produced by the directors of Avengers: Endgame, Joe and Anthony Russo. Information about the production was sparse until August 2021, when word arrived that the Russo brothers had left the project.
A few days later, at the 2021 Magic showcase, we learned that the show’s scripts had been finished and the voice actors had been cast. Wizards also announced that the show was scheduled to release in the second half of 2022. Unfortunately, that was the last time we heard about the show—until today—with many assuming that the radio silence meant that the show had been unceremoniously canceled.