In response to a question by an analyst, Cocks described the sales volume of Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair drops as "low millions to low single-digit millions," the answer to longstanding questions as to just how big the drops were. "I think that one of our most successful Secret Lair drops ever would've been like a $7 million or $8 million drop," he said in the call.
Cocks also started to broadly outline parts of the Magic: The Gathering release schedule for 2024, with more details likely to drop imminently. The January set, which he described as "our big kind of remastered set," will ship later than comparable sets from previous years, pushing the sales volume into the next year for Hasbro. Final Fantasy will ship in June, Spider-Man in the "second half," and a third Universes Beyond set to be announced.
On Dungeons & Dragons, sales of the 2024 Player’s Handbook were 50% ahead of plan, which led to the announcement last month that the book was the fastest-selling D&D product ever (see "’2024 Player’s Handbook’ Fastest Ever").
Cocks spent some time talking about the success of D&D Beyond, the digital roleplaying companion, which Hasbro acquired from Fandom in 2022 (see "Hasbro to Purchase D&D beyond from Fandom"). Direct-to-consumer revenues, which were 0% of D&D sales at the time of the acquisition, are now 60% of revenues, Cocks said. There are now 19 million registered users for D&D Beyond.
Games in general were called out by Cocks as drivers of the company’s performance for the quarter. Due to the tough comparison with the launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 in the same quarter a year ago, sales at the Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment were down 5%, from $423.6 million in Q3 2023 to $404.0 million this year despite 3% increases in Magic: The Gathering sales. Magic tabletop and Arena sales were both up, with the tabletop growth especially notable because it was up against the Lord of the Rings release in the same quarter last year. Overall, Wizards of the Coast tabletop sales were up 2%, while digital sales were down 19%.
Cocks went into some detail on the reasons for Magic growth, including strong performance by the BloomBurrow and Duskmourn sets; outperformance in backlist, especially Commander decks, and in Secret Lair sales.
Total gaming, which includes games from both Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro brands, was down 6%, from $628.0 million last year to $593.2 million in Q3 2024.
Overall Hasbro revenue for the quarter was down 15%; without the impact of the eOne divestiture, it would have been down 9%. But earnings were where the turnaround was: Hasbro reported net earnings of $223.2 million for the quarter, compared to a $171.1 million loss in the same quarter a year ago.
Sales in Hasbro’s Consumer Products segment (which includes toys), were down 10%, worse than expected. And sales in the Entertainment segment were down 86%, or down 17% without the impact of the eOne sale. But Entertainment was a big turnaround in the profitability number, with a $9.8 million profit for the segment in Q3 2024, vs. a $468.5 million loss in Q3 2023.
Overall, Hasbro reported a profit of $223.2 million for the quarter, a big improvement from the $171.1 million loss in Q3 2023. This continues the improvements in profitability from last quarter (see "’MH3’ Could Be Bestseller").
