I immediately thought this must be an outlier. So I went to Q1 of 2025 and found that Wizards actually made more than 100% of Hasbro's profits, since their other segments actually lose money.

But what bout the entire year? Well, in 2024 Wizards accounted for roughly 82% of Hasbro's total profits.

The reason for this is margins. Magic is insanely profitable, which makes sense considering it's cardboard, ink and paying some people to design the cards and make the art. In 2024, Wizards profit margin was 42%, entertainment lose money and consumer products was 4.5%, up from

In Q2 Wizards profit margin was 49.5%, which means for every dollar we spend on Magic, half goes directly into Hasbro's pocket. Compared to other divisions, where for every dollar you spend Hasbro either straight up loses money, or makes a few pennies per dollar.

Now, for the part that really blew my mind. I went back to Hasbro's 2015 annual report to see what things looked like a decade ago. At the time Wizards was part of the Entertainment and Licensing segment. Things were flipped. Hasbro's other segments made $4.2 billion in 2015,

In 2015 Hasbro made most of its money from preschoolers, who almost certainly weren't buying Magic cards.

People like to say that Hasbro buying Magic was a bad thing for the game, but this simply isn't true. When Hasbro bought Magic it was a relatively thriving company that wanted to add to its gaming portfolio. This was way back in 1999, and it was great for Magic for almost 20

What changed is Hasbro's other businesses dying, partly from exterior forces (changing consumer habits) and partly from poor leadership/decisions (like buying eOne for billions and selling it for a few hundred million just a handful of years later).

So if you're wondering why seven Standard sets a year, why endless Secret Lair drops and why higher prices, I believe this is the answer. Wizards in general and Magic in specific is quit literally keeping Hasbro's head above water. It's their only truly profitable segment, and

@SaffronOlive Whenever Hasbro is brought up on CNBC or Bloomberg they immediately just talk about MTG now. So this might be more common knowledge for $HAS traders and investors than magic players. Also this is kinda Hasbro's playbook, and reminiscing of them relying on Marvel toys early 2000s.

@LightnerTrading Yeah, that was pretty stark reading the 2024 annual report vs. 2015 annual report. In 2024 Magic is everywhere, probably the thing the talk about the most, in 2015 it was barely mentioned, and when it was it was usually just in a list of products doing well.

@SaffronOlive I'm not a financial expert, so I won't pretend to be, but isn't *revenue* the more pertinent and directly comparable quantity? What proportion of revenue does Magic constitute? Is that info available? This also avoids the "Magic profit was over 100% of all other profit" issue.

@mtg_ds That's also in the reports. Other segments generate revenue (especially consumer goods, which generates more revenue that Wizards), but the profit margin is tiny (in 2024 4.5%, in 2023 -2.2%), so they don't actually make much money off of it. They sell a lot, but only keep a tiny

@SaffronOlive Doesn't this kinda debunk the whole "we can't afford a pro tour/organized play" argument? With this level or margin or profit your just being greedy and short sighted. Especially since this is your flagship IP now. There should be esport level cash flowing around now.

@emperorkursan I think the problem is that the Magic money need to subsidize all of their failing products too. If it was just Magic there would be plenty of money for everything, but with other products and brands posting losses or barely profitable they Magic money goes back to shareholders

@SaffronOlive Why the hell doesnt wizards of the coast cut hasbro loose then? If they earn all the money

@AFikamonster Hasbro owns them.

@SaffronOlive You got a bit of a finance talent dude.

@LightnerTrading I find it interesting and like to dabble.

@SaffronOlive I guess Magic isn't dying then.

@halil1209621111 It's not dying, it's keeping Hasbro from dying and that's why we're getting so much product, so many lair drops and such.

@SaffronOlive Hasbro does this constant IP churning not from a position of strength but from weakness. Businesses with BIG IPs have higher leverage because their IPs stand fine in their own economic zone, with Hasbro mediating a royalty flow back to them.

@SaffronOlive And now you see why they’re beating the cash cow to death

@SaffronOlive Want some changes? Stop rewarding them by buying their slop product dumps. The FOMO in the mtg community of not buying up every product that drops is at an insane level. STOP IT!

@SaffronOlive This is unsustainable in the long term. Eventually, players are going to be so burnt out from constant releases that they're simply not going to buy. With the economy on the brink, a recession will sink Hasbro when MTG revenue dries up

@SaffronOlive That explains the flood of premium products. We saw the Pokemon scalpers hit Final Fantasy hard, and I think if anything, Hasbro will encourage that behavior because it sells out everything. They’ll be looking at the Pokemon releases and the madness there, and wanting that.

@SaffronOlive It sucks but kids don’t play with toys anymore. I just pray Transformers will be around still when I have kids because that was my childhood. But now unless it’s in Fortnite kids don’t care about Optimus Prime.

@SaffronOlive Be careful looking at quarters because the non-Magic portions of Hasbro's business are extremely cyclical (aka, they make all their money in Q4 because Christmas). Your overall point is still plenty good, though.

@SaffronOlive Unfortunately, just like FUNKO pops before them, they are really milking their base and rewarding and encouraging scalping/FOMO. If everything is special/limited/exclusive, than nothing is.

@SaffronOlive @matt_levine sounds like a good opportunity for activist shareholders!

@SaffronOlive They're milking a cow that in short will be dry, I don't even know how the reception on next year's UB would be if they fuck as hard with a hasty done set like the spiderman one, even the charisma of the franchise couldn't soften its fall.

@SaffronOlive Yup. This is why the last few years have been particularly frustrating: I truly think they're sacrificing quality (via mandates from top, some general some specific) for the sake of positive quarterly reports to prop up hasbros otherwise basically failing business.

@SaffronOlive I tried saying this on reddit and someone called me an idiot. Nothing makes money except Magic (and the monopoly app had an ok year). From the outside (Cynthia Williams) Magic looks like, essentially, a license to print money, and they have messed it up a few times.

@SaffronOlive Not shocked at all. This is why they have consistently increased the amount of products they release every year. Board games are dead. Toys are declining. Even tabletop RPGs (D&D, Pathfinder, etc) are declining. I worry for Magic if they hit a wall because Hasbro will fold

@SaffronOlive Hasn’t that been the case since the bankruptcy of Toys R Us via private equity? I think it’s correct that Hasbro would have been bankrupt w/o WOTC b/c of lost unpaid inventory, & nothing outside of WOTC in the last 8 years has been very profitable in the Hasbro catalog.