ICv2: The Business of Geek Culture: Pro-Games

We visited the POP MART store on a high-visibility stretch of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois on July 6, 2025, to check out the source of the Labubu craze and to see an outlet of the booming retail chain.

PRO: RPGs Settling In

After Blowout 2024

July 8, 2025

The tabletop RPG business settled in at a new level in Spring 2025, after a blowout 2024 capped by the release of the two core volumes for Dungeons & Dragons 2024.

PRO: Tariffs Overshadow Growing Miniatures Business

As Market Digests New Lines, Changes

July 7, 2025

Coupled with the tariff disruptions were more prosaic changes around the introductions of new lines and changing preferences.

PRO: Board Games in Turmoil, Card Games Ascendant

As Tariffs, Market Changes Upend Industry

July 3, 2025

Tariffs are imposing an existential threat to board games, as card games mostly elude them and benefit from changes in consumer tastes toward simpler, more casual games.

PRO: Retailers Navigating Supply, Flippers

In Red-Hot TCG Market

July 2, 2025

The biggest problems TCG retailers faced in Spring 2025 was not demand, which was red-hot, but supply and the distorting effects of flippers.

PRO: Spring Game Sales Surged

As Uncertainty Mounted

July 1, 2025

Hobby game store sales were surging this spring when record tariffs were announced in early April, adding to mounting uncertainty about the economy and the games business.

PRO: Channel Check – GameStop (Games, GNs, Toys & Merch)

June 16, 2025 in Racine, WI

June 18, 2025

We re-visited the GameStop store at 2310 S Green Bay Road D, Racine, Wisconsin on Monday evening, June 16.

PRO: Channel Check: Warhammer Store

Wednesday June 11, 2025 in Orland Park, IL

June 13, 2025

ICv2 recently visited the Warhammer store located at 15766 South La Grange Road in Orland Park, Illinois on June 11, 2025.

PRO: Channel Check: Target (Games)

Limits on 'Pokemon' Purchases

June 12, 2025

The TCG frenzy was definitely being felt in this store, with limits on how many Pokemon TCG products you could buy.

PRO: Channel Check - Meijer (TCGs, Games, YA Novels, and More)

Saturday May 17, 2025

May 20, 2025

ICv2 visited the Meijer Supercenter store at 14169 S Bell Road, Homer Glen, Illinois 60491 on Saturday May 17, 2025.

PRO: Channel Check: Walmart Supercenter – Games (May 15, 2025)

TCGs Stripped; Board Games Moved

May 16, 2025

We visited a Walmart Supercenter on a Thursday evening, and found TCG displays stripped throughout the store saw the board and card games in a new location.

PRO: RPGs Took Big Jump in 2024

Behind Bigger-than-Expected 'D&D' Launch

May 5, 2025

Sales of roleplaying games took a big jump in 2024, behind the bigger-than-expected launch of Dungeons & Dragons 2024.

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