TCGplayer released its Top 25 Sealed Products Chart, which offered up their sales rankings and price changes for October 2022 (see “October 2022“). The chart also revealed new trends in the TCG market space as well as led to some new insights.
Magic: The Gathering sets have experienced streaky product sales 2022, up onto this point. They’ve had some big hits, like Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Double Masters 2022, but also some underperformers like D&D Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate and Streets of New Capenna. No one really knew what to expect when Wizards of the Coast announced that Unfinity and Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 would arrive on the same day in October (see “Pushes Back ‘Magic: The Gathering’ ‘Warhammer 40,000’ Set“), but it all seemed to have worked out in the end because, between the two sets, they’ve captured five of the top ten slots on the October chart (including the #1 position). The Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 set performed well as a fan base crossover Commander set, and Unfinity shot for the stars on the strength of demand for its Galaxy Foil treatment cards (see “‘Unfinity’ Set“).
Thus far, Magic sales have been unexpectedly solid in Q4, after what happened in 2021 with the underperformance of Crimson Vow (see “November 2021“) and the sets leading into it. The 2022 TCG market has clearly absorbed the two delayed sets (Unfinity and Warhammer 40,000) in like a champ, and The Brothers’ War preorders were steady, as Set and Collector displays landed at #12 and #13, respectively. Early reports from retailers indicate that The Brothers’ War did well over its prerelease weekend, sealed box sales-wise (see “Rolling for Initiative“), likely due to WotC expanding its prerelease sales policy to include the entire line of The Brothers’ War products (see “‘The Brothers’ War’ Prerelease“). With the high-end Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition (see “Wizards of the Coast’s $999 ‘Magic: The Gathering: 30th Anniversary Edition’“) on its way, this could end up being quite a good Q4 for Magic: The Gathering sales.
Pokemon TCG and Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG slipped a little on the charts, but are still in the top ten and selling well. The Sword & Shield Ultra-Premium Collection: Charizard boxed set was a strong #2 with a higher MSRP and Darkwing Blast Booster Boxes stuck around in the top ten at #7. As in the last few previous months, non-Big Three card games were all but absent from the chart. The only one that hung in there was Digimon CG’s Xros Encounter Booster Box (see “‘Digimon CG’ Booster Set Inbound“) at #22.Source: ICv2
