Ever since Universes Beyond jumped from being Secret Lairs to fully fledged sets, Wizards of the Coast has been consistently smashing sales records. The Lord of the Rings obliterated old metrics, and then Final Fantasy blew that out of the water. Recently, we’ve even seen in-universe sets smashing their own sales records, thanks to Magic’s growing popularity.
With this all in mind, it’s little wonder that Hasbro just reported the best-ever quarter for Magic: The Gathering. From April 1st to June 30th, MTG reportedly made over 500 million dollars thanks to Secrets of Strixhaven and Marvel Super Heroes. While this is an undeniably impressive feat, many MTG players aren’t hugely excited about it.
A Dubious Record
While Hasbro has the numbers to back it up, some MTG players were quick to point out how sets are sold. Rather than tracking each pack and box that gets cracked, Hasbro only really cares about selling to distributors. Due to this, hype and preorders can count for a lot, especially for Universes Beyond sets of major properties like Marvel.
For Marvel Super Heroes in particular, it appears that distributors may have been a bit too overeager. As much as this set has been selling well and resonating with fans, there’s still tons of product available. Unlike past sets, like Final Fantasy and Edge of Eternities, finding boxes and precons on store shelves is remarkably easy.
Notably, while it does seem that Marvel Super Heroes is more available and cheaper on the secondary market, players don’t have all the data. There’s a strong chance that Marvel Super Heroes has hugely resonated with casual fans and is actually smashing sales records. Even if products are still sitting on store shelves, it could still have blown past Final Fantasy’s benchmark.
For now, until we hear more from Hasbro or someone like Mark Rosewater, this data is unfortunately a little murky. It’s unclear, for instance, just how much of a role Secrets of Strixhaven played in this record $500 million quarter. Hasbro does note it’s partly responsible, but it’s unknown if that means it’s the best-selling in-universe set of all time now.
A New Normal
Given how well Universes Beyond sets have been selling, this record-breaking quarter also spawned a smidgen of fearmongering. Admittedly, this aspect isn’t nearly as bad as before, but players couldn’t help but comment that “we’re never getting away from UB.” Notably, while record-breaking quarters like this could influence the set split in the future, in-universe Magic isn’t going anywhere.
As Mark Rosewater has previously stated, MTG having its own IP is hugely important. It’s not like Wizards is shying away from developing it, either, as there’s the long-awaited Netflix show in development. Hell, Rosewater has even said that in-universe sets could overtake Universes Beyond one day.
With this in mind, it’s refreshing to see that some MTG players are surprisingly tolerant of Universes Beyond doing well. Celebrating the fact that record-breaking quarters fund future development, MTG’s future looks rock solid. That being said, it’s unclear if these current successes will stretch into Q3 or not.
For as good as they look on paper, there’s no telling how well The Hobbit and Reality Fracture will sell. Hopefully, for the good of MTG, they’ll be truly blockbuster releases, but that remains to be seen. For now, we’ll just have to enjoy the ongoing spoiler season and vote with our wallets.
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