Hasbro’s Total Gaming Up 6%

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner told analysts in the earnings conference call Tuesday that the company’s Magic: The Gathering revenues increased 30% in 2019, behind “double-digit growth in tabletop play” and the first year of Magic: The Gathering Arena digital revenues, which grew “several-fold.” Magic sales growth contributed to Hasbro’s 6% increase in total gaming revenue to $1.53 billion for the year, up from $1.44 billion in 2018. Monopoly also had double-digit growth.

In fact, Hasbro gaming sales without franchise brands Magic: The Gathering and Monopoly were down 10% for the quarter, with Dungeons & Dragons and classic game sales increases unable to offset declines in sales of novelty games Pie Face and Speak Out.

D&D sales continue to be driven by video views; 150 million hours of D&D video content were viewed in 2019, up nearly 50% year on year. With those kinds of increases, it seems unlikely that the growth of D&D will flag any time soon.

The increase in total gaming revenues for the year was despite a decline of 7.7% in Q4, with Magic sales undoubtedly part of that decline due to the tough comparisons with the Ultimate Masters release in Q4 2018.

Despite tariff-related impacts on sales and earnings earlier in the year (see “Tariffs Hit Hasbro Sales, Earnings”), Hasbro ended the year with total revenues up 3% to $4.72 billion from $4.58 billion in 2018. Earnings more than doubled, from $220.4 million in 2018 to $520.5 million last year.

Source: https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/45147/magic-the-gathering-up-30-including-digital-2019