Magic: The Gathering – Bloomburrow products captured the top three spots on the TCGplayer Top 25 Sealed Products chart for July 2024. This chart (see “July 2024“) also offered new insights as to where the TCG market is headed in the near term.
Magic seems like it’s headed for a repeat performance of what happened last summer, where the LotR set and Commander Masters practically owned the top end of the chart (see “June 2023” and also, “July 2023“). Modern Horizons 3 absolutely crushed it, and thanks to inflation and its print cycle, will probably become the best-selling Magic set of all-time (see “Bestselling ‘Magic’ Set of All Time“). The cute little critters from Bloomburrow then followed that set up with stunning preorders.
This all amounts to good news for retailers as Magic sales are becoming fairly predictable, which had classically not been the case. For the last three years now, the June and July Magic sets have been the absolute spiciest of the year. On the other end of that spectrum, the Q4 Magic releases tend to take a giant dump as of the last three years (see “‘Innistrad: Crimson Vow’“), making room for Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! to steal the show. WotC seems like they understand this pattern of consumer spending, hence why they decided to release a Standard core set during that time frame this year (see “‘Magic: The Gathering – Foundations’“) as Standard core sets usually get the least love.
As for everyone else on the chart, it seems like the top tier TCGs are going through a period of jockeying for position. Disney Lorcana, Pokemon TCG, One Piece CG, Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, and occasionally Star Wars Unlimited seem to all just be bobbing up and down the chart based on preorder sales. Of note, Pokemon TCG still seems to be in the proverbial “penalty box” with consumers (see “‘Pokemon TCG’ Summer Malaise Cause for Concern?“), for whatever reason (likely that there is less social media traction for the IP than in 2022 and 2023), and Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG and One Piece CG continue to outperform the market.
Disney Lorcana seems to have hit that fourth or fifth set rut that so many TCGs experience, where Ravensburger has finally gotten the print run adjusted to meet demand and the easy money for flippers has ended (thus causing their exit from buying the game in bulk). Star Wars Unlimited just has everyone off balance because the product is in demand, but getting the product from distributors still seems to be a crapshoot. Finally, all of the mid-sized TCGs have been bumped off the chart at this point simply by U.S. sales volume. Flesh and Blood TCG, UVS Games products, Bushiroad products, and even the other Bandai products are all doing very well, but can’t compete with the pure brand power of the top end IPs.
Source: ICv2
