Magic: The Gathering Foundations – Collector Booster Display took the top spot on the TCGplayer Top 25 Sealed Products chart for October 2024 (see “October 2024“). This chart also revealed some new trends for the TCG market as 2024 ends as well as reaffirmed ongoing trends.
Magic: The Gathering is still the head of pack, logging its tenth month in a row on the top of the chart (see “‘Magic: The Gathering’ Tops Chart Again“). This is a seemingly mind-boggling feat, especially given how frequently Wizards of the Coast seems to do something to spark anger amongst its fans. This year alone, ICv2 has reported on at least three major news bites involving WotC saying or doing something suspect (see “Plagiarism,” “Forms New Commander Panel,” and also, “‘Secret Lair x Marvel’ Fallout Continues“), and fans just seem to let it all roll off their backs and keep on buying whatever Magic comes out.
WotC seems to truly be a Teflon Company at this point, which has both good and bad aspects to it. The good aspect is that essentially the TCG space as an seemingly unshakable pillar to rally around should times get rough. Magic: The Gathering is a strong brand, and will be there for retailers to make a sale. The bad aspect of WotC’s nigh-invulnerability to negative consumer experiences is, of course, that it gives them carte blanche to do whatever they want with the game to make money. Thus far, WotC hasn’t gone too far over the line with this superpower, but as CEO Chris Cocks becomes more and more infatuated with the idea of AI as part of the future of Hasbro (see “Chris Cocks, Dungeons, Dragons, AI and Wall Street“), habitual line-stepping seems almost imminent; especially when there are no apparent consequences on the sales side.
Beyond Magic: The Gathering, the chart featured the return of Pokemon TCG to the main stage. Pokemon TCG had been in the “retailer penalty box” for months now (see “More Top End TCG Jockeying“), but it seems like sales are back with their Scarlet & Violet – Surging Sparks set. One Piece CG and Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG also put in strong showings, and Sorcery Contested Realm, Star Wars Unlimited, and Union Arena made it to the charts.
Then, there is Disney Lorcana. There has been a lot of chatter about this game, mostly sourced via ICv2 retailer interviews, indicating that the TCG declined in sales after its “Linecana” start at Gen Con 2023 (see “Disney Lines“), The only Disney Lorcana product to hit the Top 25 this time through was The First Chapter boxes (which have expensive cards in them), and all the game’s other sets were shut out.
The rationale behind the change in trajectory for this game is fairly simple: the easy money is over. There were a lot of people buying and flipping this product on the secondary market after its launch last year, and now those folks have moved on to something else. As with most new TCGs in this part of their lifecycle, the future success of Disney Lorcana rests in the hands of its player base and its community of fans. If people keep playing the game on the FLGS level and at larger events, it’ll be fine and stabilize.
Source: ICV2
