As New Customers Throng Game Stores

The hobby games market grew around 15% in 2014, the sixth consecutive year of growth, according to a new report in ICv2’s Internal Correspondence #87. The market is now roughly 2.25 times as large as it was in 2008, the last time the market declined.The growth came primarily in the second half of the year, with a blow-out holiday season capping the trend.Continued strength in collectible games, with a big surge in board games and a revived RPG category were the leaders in the trend, with action also in (non-collectible) card games. Even the non-collectible miniatures game category was up, behind the new pre-painted miniatures games from Fantasy Flight Games and WizKids and a turnaround in Games Workshop’s venerable Warhammer Fantasy.Retailers reported a broad-based influx of new customers, reflecting a growing awareness of the hobby. The big holiday surge in particular types of games may reflect this trend; new customers were looking for board games they’ve heard of (like perennials Settler of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic) or easy-to-learn, simpler games like Love Letter and Cards Against Humanity.ICv2 also published its hobby game bestseller charts in the new issue, covering all five categories.For the lists of the bestselling Collectible Games in the hobby channel, in the mass channel, and overall, click here For the bestselling board games in the hobby channel, click here For the bestselling card/dice games in the hobby channel, click here For the bestselling RPGs, click here For the bestselling non-collectible miniature games, click here For information on how to get your copy of Internal Correspondence #87, see " ICv2 Releases 'Internal Correspondence' #87 ."