Sales of collectible games were up in Spring (January-April) 2022, behind better supply on Pokemon TCG and strong releases across the board. The superheated TCG market of early 2021 was gone, but players and collectors are continuing to buy, following up on habits established during the peak Covid months and now expanded to include more play.
Magic: The Gathering returned to its traditional #1 slot in the hobby, behind a very strong Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty release, and a solid release for Streets of New Capenna, after weaker Innistrad releases in Fall 2021.
For Pokemon TCG, still strongly #1 in the mass channel and #1 overall, we had the seeming paradox of higher sales despite declining demand, with “glommers” and “flippers” disappearing. That’s all about the increasing supply. “Pokemon continues to have strong demand even though we have seen a cool-off,” a hobby distributor told us. “It’s cooled off from absolutely insane to just insane, let’s say. We’re still far from being able to meet the demand that we’re seeing.”
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG continues to grow, with retailers and distributors reporting steady increases in sales, set-over-set and year-over-year.
Flesh and Blood, although off its peak demand, remains solidly in the middle ranks, with play developing in stores to replace the drop-off in flipper interest.
Digimon remains the stronger Bandai brand, with some stores reporting it in their top three or four games.
Jasco’s My Hero Academia cracked the chart behind the prerelease of Crimson Rampage at the end of the period. Like the first release, it quickly sold out although supply came closer to meeting demand. While some in-store play is kicking off, collectors and fans of the property remain the key buyers of the brand.
These charts of the Top 10 Hobby Channel Collectible Games, Top 3 Mass Market Channel Collectible Games and Top 5 Collectible Games Over-all reflect sales in Spring 2022 (January-April). The charts are based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.
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ICv2’s Top Collectible Games – Spring 2022 (Hobby Channel) |
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|
Rank |
Title |
Publisher |
|
1 |
Magic: The Gathering |
Wizards of the Coast |
|
2 |
Pokemon TCG |
TPCI |
|
3 |
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG |
Konami |
|
4 |
D&D Icons of the Realms |
WizKids |
|
5 |
Weiss Schwarz |
Bushiroad |
|
6 |
Digimon Card Game |
Bandai |
|
7 |
Flesh and Blood |
Legend Story Studios |
|
8 |
Cardfight!! Vanguard |
Bushiroad |
|
9 |
My Hero Academia |
Jasco |
|
10 |
Dragon Ball Super Card Game |
Bandai |
–
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ICv2’s Top Collectible Games – Spring 2022 (Mass Channel) |
||
|
Rank |
Title |
Publisher |
|
1 |
Pokemon |
TPCI |
|
2 |
Magic: The Gathering |
Wizards of the Coast |
|
3 |
Yu-GI-Oh! TCG |
Konami |
–
|
ICv2’s Top Collectible Games – Spring 2022 (Overall) |
||
|
Rank |
Title |
Publisher |
|
1 |
Pokemon TCG |
TPCI |
|
2 |
Magic: The Gathering |
Wizards of the Coast |
|
3 |
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG |
Konami |
|
4 |
D&D Icons of the Realms |
WizKids |
|
5 |
Weiss Schwarz |
Bushiroad |
The full-length version of this article appeared in ICv2’s Internal Correspondence #102. For the full-length version of this article on the ICv2 Pro site, click here.
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Source: ICv2
