Stonemaier Games sales declined for a second consecutive year in 2023, according to the company’s annual report to stakeholders from founder Jamey Stegmaier. Stonemaier Games sales were $16.7 million in 2023, down around 19% from the company’s $20.7 million sales in 2022 (see “Stonemaier Sales Declined in 2022“), and off 32% from $24.7 million in sales in 2021, Stonemaier’s biggest year since the company started releasing the stakeholder reports in 2016.
Trends for Stonemaier’s overall sales track closely with sales of flagship title Wingspan, which also peaked in 2021 at 663,548 copies (core game only). Last year, sales were 208,506 copies, according to the lifetime numbers released in the stakeholder report (1,889,043 copies sold to date!), the lowest sales since the game was released in 2019.
As was his practice, Stegmaier did not disclose profits, but did note that the company was more profitable on lower sales in 2023 than it was in 2022, due to “improved partnerships and logistics.” Stonemaier went to exclusive hobby distribution through GTS, and to warehousing and fulfillment by Miniature Market instead of Greater than Games during 2022.
Sales of 2023 releases Scythe sequel Expeditions and Apiary were good by hobby board game standards (70,500 and 30,000 units, respectively), but still an order of magnitude smaller than Wingspan.
Sales of Wyrmspan, the first 2024 Stonemaier release (see “Preview: ‘Wyrmspan’“), will likely be higher than either of those; Stegmaier announced that the initial print run is 100,000 units (see “Stonemaier Updates ‘Wyrmspan’ Deets“).Source: ICv2