The multiverse has been good to Magic: The Gathering. Of its recent crossover sets the big winner was The Lord of the Rings, which earned over $200 million in under six months. As Polygon pointed out at the time, that’s about twice as much as other popular Magic sets make.
Fallout has apparently been a solid earner as well, although it’s not a full set like The Lord of the Rings was. Where the Middle-earth cards were designed to be playable in a variety of formats, and even made it to Magic: The Gathering Arena in digital form (which “Universes Beyond” crossovers typically don’t), the Fallout set is purely for Commander—a format designed for groups of typically four players, who each have a deck of 100 cards with no doubles led by a single legendary creature acting as its leader.
Commander is currently Magic’s most popular official format, so it’s still significant when a Commander-only set does well. And Fallout has. During Hasbro’s recent first quarter 2024 earnings call, CEO Chris Cox called it “a great set,” saying, “it’s probably our best-performing Commander set ever, whether it’s a Universes Beyond set or not. However, Commander sets tend to be quite a bit smaller than our overall premier sets, so you have to weigh that accordingly.”
This was in response to a shareholder question that also asked for his thoughts on the long-term of Magic. Cox responded, “I would say our view on Magic is pretty healthy. Engagement has reached pre-pandemic levels, our stores are all healthy, Fallout’s doing well, Outlaws of Thunder Junction—which is our first major release of Q2—it’s early but it’s off to a promising start.”
Outlaws of Thunder Junction is a western-themed set that wants you to do crimes. It takes place on a new world within Magic’s existing setting, but next year there are two more Universes Beyond sets due, both with the potential to be big deals: Final Fantasy and Marvel.
“In terms of the long-term view on Universes Beyond,” Cox said, “man, I think Final Fantasy and Marvel are gonna be pretty significant sets. I would put them in the same league at least as what we saw with Lord of the Rings. Marvel is just a huge IP, we’re gonna do multiple sets with the Walt Disney Company on that which we’re pretty excited about. And Final Fantasy, it’s huge inside of North America and Europe, but our sales in Japan will probably dwarf what we did with Lord of the Rings because of the resonance it has in that market, which you should remember is the number two market for Magic and the number two market overall for trading card games.”
So don’t expect Magic to slow down on the crossovers any time soon. Not only have they been big earners, they’ve been quality sets too. The Lord of the Rings was one of the most well-received sets in years, and Fallout’s Commander decks are fun too. I’m sure the popularity of the TV show has helped move some product, but at my local store at least it was already selling super well, and I enjoyed siding with Caesar when I played, something I never did in New Vegas.
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