Board games go ‘from goose to goose’ and support the rise in sales during the pandemic

The board game market has managed to consolidate the sales momentum that began with the pandemic and grows around 7% in 2023, above the average of the toy sector, after having generated a business volume of more than 140 million last year in Spain.

Revenue skyrocketed with the coronavirus crisis, when millions of people, confined to their homes, explore new forms of entertainment. Although growth slowed in 2022, the newly acquired buyer base has been established this year and the sector has once again gained traction.

The figures are encouraging even before the Christmas campaign ends – between October and early January, in the industry calendars – which in Spain represents around 65% of sales for the year, a substantially higher percentage than in Spain. Thesis of the European environment, according to the data offered to EFE by Circana, a leading consultancy in the sector.

The publisher and distributor Asmodee, responsible for titles such as “Exploding Kittens” and “Dixit”, expects to bill around 25 million euros in Spain this year, compared to more than 24 million the previous year, and its Marketing Director, Rocío Martínez confirms that this is finally the year of the return to “normality” after the ups and downs of the pandemic.

From Devir, another of the leaders in the industry, they explain that 2022 was a “transition” exercise, in which the distribution channels were overloaded both by the increase in demand from previous years and by the global problems in the supply chains.

With these bottlenecks now unclogged, the market has regained momentum this year and sales of board games from the firm, which has the license for the game Catan, among other successes, are already 17% above last year. . , says Joaquim Dorca, Marketing Director of Devir.

Bonanza in times of crisis

Rising prices of raw materials such as cardboard and energy have affected game manufacturing, but the industry believes that the impact of inflation on sales has been limited.

“Crises benefit board games a little. People invest in something that they will use several times, to stay at home and enjoy a little cheaper leisure,” says Martínez. Compared to more ephemeral entertainment options like the cinema, “with a board game you can have fun for three months,” she emphasizes.

In 2022, the average price of a board game approached 19 euros, 4% more than the previous year, according to Circana, although in a market with a very diverse audience, which includes everything from children to adult fans and specialized players. , some titles can exceed one hundred euros.

All in all, products under 20 euros “are working better and better,” Dorca highlights, partly because new buyers who have arrived on the market in recent years tend to look for simpler and cheaper titles.

The biggest problems with inflation were suffered in 2021 and 2022, when the transportation of products in containers “went from costing $5,000 to $20,000” and manufacturing a game “went from costing 4 euros to 6 euros,” says the head of Devir, which highlights that these increases were not completely passed on to consumers.

In recent decades, China has been the main global manufacturing center for games, but the increase in costs has contributed to part of the production beginning to move to Europe, mainly to Germany and Poland, Oriol Comas underlines. director of the DAU sector festival and author of the book “A world of games”.

Classics and new trends

Classic games such as Monopoly, Trivial and Operation never fall from the best-seller lists in Spain, where the most successful titles can sell between 800,000 and a million units a year, but an increasingly larger audience. mature also seeks more complex experiences.

Games designed for gatherings of friends, strategy and cards, among other market niches, are gaining more and more weight.

Guatafac, a question and answer game designed to liven up encounters between adults, and Tranvía Mortal, a game of moral dilemmas recommended for those over 18 years of age, are among Asmodee’s featured titles, while Devir highlights the good reception of “The White “Castle”, in which players try to gain influence at the court of an 18th century Japanese castle.

The so-called “one shot” titles are gaining more and more space, titles that can only be played once, because it is important that users do not know the plot. In this category, Comas highlights the deduction series “Sherlock”, from the GDM publishing house, with proposals such as “The Archaeologist’s Tomb” and “Last Call”.