D&D Recovering As Hasbro Heads Out of Q1
2023 was a tough year for tabletop gaming. But the first couple of months in 2024 seem to be starting on the road to recovery.
It’s the end of a financial quarter, and that means it’s once again time to pretend that infinite growth is not only possible but sustainable and expected. In other words, it’s time for Hasbro to have another investor call, where they explain how things are in the state of the industry.
According to reporting from Hasbro and ICv2, tabletop gaming declined last year, with D&D seeing a 30% decline compared to the previous year. This is understandable, of course. After all, we were coming out of the pandemic surge of growth, and people were staying home. It’s a reckoning across multiple industries.
But, in the latest earnings call from Hasbro, which covered Q1 2024, it looks like D&D is on the rise. At least a little bit. And more, it looks like there are new licensing agreements that may well factor into how D&D grows over the next few years. Let’s take a look at what Hasbro had to say.
D&D Up Despite Hasbro’s Overall Decline
Per the investor call, Hasbro saw D&D start on the road back to recovering. According to Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, Q1 “saw tangible progress” on Hasbro’s turnaround. Of particular interest were several pieces of D&D news that we’ll probably see more of in the coming months. Notably, Cocks mentioned the upcoming D&D game from Gameloft, makers of Dreamlight Valley, and a Q1 licensing agreement with Resolution Games, the makers of Demeo. This last one, in particular, should be a really interesting partnership.
Demeo is best described as a virtual reality love letter to D&D. You play not as a D&D character but as someone gathered in a virtual basement to play a D&D-type game. It’s very fun and very tactical. And it’s avenues like this where we’re more likely to see D&D keep expanding. As Cocks said, digital gaming is where D&D will grow the most:
“Stay tuned for more exciting innovation from our D&D team later this year as we continue to scale D&D Beyond and expand the richness of tabletop game play to digital. We expect to connect to an even wider audience while delighting our existing fans as D&D celebrates its 50th anniversary.”
And it performed well overall, with WotC once again being the overall top grower in Hasbro’s portfolio, up 7%, while Hasbro overall is down 24% in terms of revenue. But a lot of that is coming from digital and licensed game sales, as opposed to “overall tabletop gaming” which is only up 5%.
Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to leave its mark, in other words.
