Top Brands Drive Modest TCG Growth

Solid performances from the biggest TCG brands, along with a surging One Piece Card Game from Bandai and growth in some smaller brands all contributed to another season of collectible games growth (albeit modest) in Spring (January through April) 2023.  That’s an important trend, as the market was coming off a surfeit of Magic: The Gathering releases in a short period in Q4 2022, which had clogged up store inventories and put a lot of stress on consumer wallets.

“There’s a lot of life here [in the TCG market], as TCGs are driving most new releases,” a hobby distributor told us.  “Magic and Pokemon are vying for the top spot as usual, as Magic appears to have recovered from last year’s concerns about overproduction and even this year’s Pinkerton case.”

Magic: The Gathering
While there was still concern about the number of Magic releases, low initial retailer orders on Phyrexia: All Will Be One were followed by strong sell-through.  “Phyrexia: All Will Be One was a little under-committed to start with,” a Southern Hobby Supply buyer told ICv2.  “There was really high demand once it hit the market.  It ended up being really, really good sell-through, a long tail on it that lasted all the way until we got to March of the Machine.  Then March of the Machine did the same thing.”

Pokemon TCG
We had mixed reports on the direction of Pokemon TCG sales for the season, which we suspect was tied to year-ago trends for the companies reporting: collector frenzy is down, and in-store play is up vs. Spring 2022.  With the resumption of organized play in the second half of 2022, those reporting sales depending on a growing player base were reporting increased sales; if the year-ago pattern was more collector-based, sales declines resulted.

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
Konami’s Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG is off to a strong start for the year, a celebration of the game’s 25th anniversary.  “The 25th anniversary seems to be really pushing demand for the product,” a Southern Hobby Supply spokesperson said of the brand.

One Piece, Digimon, Dragon Ball
The big story below the Big Three was the surging demand for and chronic undersupply of Bandai’s One Piece Card Game.  One reason there’s been such inadequate supply (as there was in the early days of Bandai’s Digimon Card Game) is that Bandai’s unusually long period between order and shipment meant that it’s taking a while for orders to catch up with the unexpectedly high demand.

Sales on Digimon Card Game remain ahead of those on Bandai’s Dragon Ball Super Card Game, a continuing surprise to those who know the histories of the properties.

Weiss Schwarz, Cardfight!! Vanguard
Bushiroad’s Weiss Schwarz TCG, which ties in with different IPs for each set, continues its uptrend, and remains well ahead of venerable sister product Cardfight!! Vanguard.

Flesh and Blood
Sales on Legend Story’s Flesh and Blood remained solid for most stores carrying it; its rank is lower for Spring than it was for Fall due largely to surges by competitors.

My Hero Academia TCG
Improved availability on Jasco’s My Hero Academia CCG through broadened distribution (Jasco Games ended its exclusive relationship with Asmodee in March) has been a plus for some.

Newbies
Two new TCGs, Grand Archive TCG and Kryptik TCG made their debuts at trade in the Spring season.  Both originated on Kickstarter, with similar levels of success: Grand Archive TCG was crowdfunded at $947,400 in 2021, and Kryptik TCG at $873,165 in 2022.

How Many Is Too Many?
With a growing number of TCGs in the marketplace, we’re starting to hear the “G” word (“glut”) in some of our conversations.  While launches still appear to be doing well and there’s no attrition to date from the existing TCGs, that could change in a busy summer.

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The in-depth version of this article appeared in Internal Correspondence #104.  For the full-length version of this article on the ICv2 Pro site, click here.

If you are a U.S. retailer, e-mail Dennis Viau at DViau@ICv2.com  to get your free subscription to ICv2’s Internal Correspondence.

ICv2 Pro subscribers have early and complete access to Internal Correspondence.  Click here for the complete Internal Correspondence #104.

Source: ICv2