Board and card game sales were on a downward slope in the Spring 2023 (January-April) season, as the pandemic-driven demand dissipated and consumers returned to more normal out-of-home activities for their leisure time.  "Our orders are there; it’s just the quantity that are going out the door," a distributor explained.  "Where a customer was ordering $1,000, they’re now ordering $500.  They’re ordering the board games, we’re shipping them out, but where they were ordering six, they’re now ordering three."

Evergreen Trends
Based on sales of evergreens, new customer acquisition for the category, and/or the repeat purchase rate of recently acquired customers are both down.

Inflation Impacts
In a sign that inflation, which boosted board and card game prices dramatically during the pandemic, may be having an impact, some were describing price-related sales shifts.  The ultra-high end, presumably frequented by higher income consumers, seems to be holding up OK for the handful of titles in that price range.

Play Style
The style of play consumers are looking for is also having an impact on what’s selling.  "What we’re seeing a really good turnaround on is the more casual, lighter, social play games," Pat Fuge of Wisconsin game store chain Gnome Games observed.

Titles on the Move
Titles new to the chart included Sleeping Gods, which we started hearing about late last year, and the ultra-high-end Horseless Carriage in the board game category, and Ares Games’ War of the Ring Card Game (on which sales were constrained by short supply) and Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars Deckbuilding Game in card games.

As usual, even when sales are a little softer, there are areas of strength, and opportunities to improve sales.  It will be interesting to see how the board and card game categories morph as we go through this new/old-style year.

The in-depth version of this article appeared in Internal Correspondence #104.  For the full-length version of this article on the ICv2 Pro site, click here.

ICv2's Top 10 Board Games - Spring 2023 (Hobby Channel)
Rank	Title	Publisher
1	Wingspan	Stonemaier Games
2	Root	Leder Games
3	Sleeping Gods	Red Raven Games
4	Cascadia	AEG
5	Gloomhaven	Cephalofair
6	Ark Nova	Capstone
7	Catan	Asmodee
8	Betrayal at House on the Hill	Avalon Hill
9	Heroquest	Avalon Hill
10	Horseless Carriage	Splotter Spellen

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ICv2's Top 10 Card/Dice Games - Spring 2023 (Hobby Channel)
Rank	Title	Publisher
1	Codenames	Czech Games, The Op
2	Dominion	Rio Grande Games
3	War of the Ring	Ares Games
4	CLANK!	Dire Wolf
5	Marvel Legendary	Upper Deck
6	Coup	Indie Boards & Cards
7	Star Wars Deckbuilding Game	Fantasy Flight Games
8	Marvel Champions	Fantasy Flight Games
9	Monopoly Deal	Hasbro
10	Bang!	Upper Deck

The in-depth version of this article appeared in Internal Correspondence #104.  For the full-length version of this article on the ICv2 Pro site, click here.

For other market reports on Spring 2023, see:
Top Brands Drive TCG Modest Growth
Games Workshop Slims Down Channel, 'BattleTech' Bulks Up, 'D&D' Declines
OGL Mis-Step Shakes Up RPG Business

If you are a U.S. retailer, e-mail Dennis Viau at DViau@ICv2.com  to get your free subscription to ICv2’s Internal Correspondence.

ICv2 Pro subscribers have early and complete access to Internal Correspondence.  Click here for the complete Internal Correspondence #104.