Magic: The Gathering sales exceeded $600 million in Q3, a new quarterly record, Hasbro announced in conjunction with its quarterly earnings report. Sales of the brand were up 34% to $616.1 million from $459.4 million in the same quarter last year, behind The Hobbit, which is already the fourth bestselling Magic set in history despite a leaner SKU list, and Reality Fracture, which performed better than expected, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks explained in the conference call. The Hobbit prerelease was the biggest ever for a Universes Beyond release.
Magic sales were up across new releases, backlist and Secret Lairs, with backlist sales growing faster than new release sales, Cocks said. He cited the backlist sales as evidence that the new customers being brought to the game through Universes Beyond sets were sticking around and buying older sets to fill out their play and collections.
Distribution continues to expand, with Magic now in nearly 40,000 doors via mass channels, and WPN stores up 38% to 13,000 worldwide.
Big Magic sales mean big profits; the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment reported operating profit of $367 million, up 46% (or even more than sales) over $252 million in the year ago period.
Hasbro sales overall were up 15% to $1,595 million from $1,388 million in Q3 2025. Earnings grew to $395.0 million from $233.9 million a year ago. The third quarter results built on a similarly strong showing in Q2 (see “Q2 Report”).
Magic sales will be down in Q4, management predicted, not only because of a weaker release schedule but also because early shipments of the October set, Reality Fracture, have pulled $40 million in sales expected in Q4 into Q3. Regardless, Hasbro raised sales and profit guidance for the full year. No headwinds for the U.S. consumer are expected in the holiday season.
In 2027, a change in Magic product configurations will produce sales increases over the big year in 2026, Cocks said. Each of the six “Tentpole” releases in 2026 will have a full product suite, including Commander Decks and all the collectible products associated with them, which was not the case for 2026. Adding those SKUs can raise sales for the set by 50%, experience shows, according to Cocks.
Trading cards, which include TCGs and sports cards, are now the #1 category in toys and games, Cocks said in the call. “And we see that as a generational structural shift and not just as kind of like a onetime thing,” he said.
Source: ICv2
