Hobby Game Market Wins As It Hits $700 Million

(August 18, 2014 - Madison, WI)  Pop culture experts ICv2 released today the results of their study on the hobby game market and it shows that the North American market totaled $700 million at retail for 2013.  Breaking down the estimate for the total industry by category shows that collectible games was the largest at $450 million; miniatures second at $125 million; boardgames were third at $75 million; card and dice games fourth at $35 million; with RPGs coming in last at $15 million.  "Hobby games" are defined as those games produced for "gamers" and are most often sold in the hobby channel or game and card specialty stores, but these items are not limited to sales in that market.

ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp commented, "A $700 million market is a significant geek culture market segment.  With the growth it's been experiencing, a billion dollar market is within reach in the next few years, and hopefully this kind of industry analysis will help us get there.  I cannot thank enough the industry insiders who helped us compile these estimates.  Without their willingness to speak frankly with us about their own estimates of market size and the reasoning behind them, we would have been unable to complete this project."

The hobby game industry remained strong in the Spring season of 2014, according to information compiled by ICv2.  In collectible games, WizKids' Dice Masters was the red hot and hard-to-find item due to high demand.  Magic: The Gathering led the pack, but not as strongly as previous seasons.  Boardgames continued to grow with support from hard core gamers and an influx of mainstream gamers coming over from other markets.  The heat in the miniatures category came from Star Wars X-Wing and Star Trek Attack Wing, with any extra space filled by anticipation of the new edition of Warhammer 40K.  The big news in the Card and Dice Game category was high interest and quick sell-out of both Boss Monsterand Adventure Time Card Wars.  The largest change overall in the RPG category was the failure of Dungeons & Dragons to hit the Top 5 list for Spring, before the release of the new edition.  This change is a first in ICv2's decade long history of sales reporting on the hobby game industry.

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