Hasbro expects Monopoly Go! and BG3 to bring in $135 million in combined licensed revenue in 2024

Monopoly Go! (left), Baldur’s Gate 3 (right)

Financial highlights

• According to its earnings release, Hasbro reached $995 million in revenue in the second quarter, down 18% year-over-year.
• Operating profit was $212.1 million, compared to an operating loss of $188.6 million in the same period last year.
• Almost all of the company’s business segments saw revenue declines: Consumer Products was down 20% year-over-year, while Entertainment was down 90% (-30% when excluding the eOne divestiture).
• Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming was the only segment to show growth, with its Q2 revenue growing 20% year-over-year to $452 million.
• Tabletop Gaming accounted for 86% of the total, or $307.6 million, while Digital and Licensed Gaming grew 87% year-over-year to $144.4 million.

Hasbro’s video game ambitions are gaining momentum

• Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming’s growth was driven by licensed revenue from Monopoly Go! and “to a lesser extent continued contribution” from Baldur’s Gate 3, as well as the launch of the Modern Horizons 3 set for Magic: The Gathering.
• Digital licensing outperformed Hasbro’s expectations, with CFO Gina Goetter saying that Monopoly Go!’s momentum “allowed us to exceed the minimum guarantee sooner than expected.”
• Thanks to the game’s success, the company earned about $35 million above the minimum guarantee of $5 million in Q2, expecting its full-year licensed revenue from Monopoly Go! to reach $105 million.
• As for BG3, Goetter said “we now anticipate roughly $30 million for the full year, with the bulk of that revenue having been recorded in the first half.” In 2023, the game’s royalties brought in $90 million for the company.
• According Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, Monopoly Go! has surpassed $3 billion in player spending. This means Scopely’s game has generated another $1 billion since February.
• As pointed out by Stephen Totilo, Hasbro is “redefining itself from a toy company to a games, IP and toys company, as it sees more revenue coming from physical and digital games.”
• Cocks told investors that the Digital segment will be a major factor in how successful toy and game companies will be able to grow their brands. He added that Hasbro has “already spent hundreds of millions of dollars building out our own studio capacity and expanding our brands through digital partnerships,” citing games like Baldur’s Gate 3 as a benchmark for future success.
• Former Warcraft general manager John Hight, who left Blizzard last month, recently joined Hasbro as president of Wizards of the Coast. He will lead strategy on the company’s core franchises like Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons.
• This is in line with what Wizards of the Coast head of digital product development Dan Ayoub said about Hasbro’s first-party pipeline. The company has already invested $1 billion in internal game development, with some of the titles including Archetype Entertainment’s sci-fi RPG Exodus, Atomic Arcade’s G.I. Joe project, and an untitled D&D game from Invoke Studios.