Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy Play Booster Box took the top spot on the May 2025 TCGplayer Top 25 Sealed Products Chart (see “May 2025“). The new chart showed developing trends in the TCG market as well as reaffirmed the ongoing market status.
When Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks projected that Final Fantasy would be the best-selling Magic: The Gathering set ever (see “Hasbro Raises Guidance for WotC“), he wasn’t kidding. The most recent TCGplayer chart has 9 Final Fantasy products on it, three of which are holding the top three spots. Additionally, the three products on the top of the chart have also increased in value from the beginning of the month to the end of the month. On the retail front, stores have been reporting massive attendance for prereleases and solid sales of sealed boxes.
The popularity of Final Fantasy set was projected from long before its launch date, so this isn’t too surprising. However, the more shocking part of this story about fans didn’t even “pump the brakes” in the face of massive price increases on a Premiere set, and in fact, seem to have just bought more product than usual because of the popular IP. Collector Boosters went from $24.99 in Tarkir: Dragonstorm to $37.99 (52% more) and Play Boosters went from $5.49 to $6.99 (17% more); fans didn’t even blink at the price increase and just spent more. This behavior, in itself, leads to a couple of conclusions.
For one, it basically gives WotC carte blanche to keep increasing prices on Universes Beyond Premiere sets. And, why shouldn’t they? Apparently, the maximum amount the typical TCG fan will spend on a Magic Premiere set, with a popular IP attached to it, hasn’t been breached yet. It is possible that WotC is actually undercharging for their products and could get away with raising the prices on future Collector Boosters to $49.99 and the Play Boosters to $9.99. If a strong IP was attached to these boosters (like Marvel), it’s a solid bet that fans would gladly pay it and demand more.
The second conclusion is that the American consumer may not be as bad off as originally suspected. The economic outlook is clearly uncertain for the remainder of 2025 (thanks to tariffs and higher prices), and consumer budgets are supposedly tightening. Yet, miraculously, droves of TCG fans still have $714.42 to spend on a Final Fantasy Collector Booster Displays. While it might be true that the average American household is feeling the pain of rising CPI caused by tariffs, higher wealth individuals seem to be making up for that by dropping thousands of dollars on non-essentials (like high-priced Magic packs). How long that dynamic lasts into the future is unclear, but for the near term, it will likely continue.
Moving onto Pokemon TCG, which is just an absolute runaway train at this point. It again claimed 12 spots on the chart, which is somewhat standard these days. However, its appeal in mass markets is potentially greater (see “Channel Check: Target (Games)“) as Target and other stores are once again placing limits of pack purchases. Pokemon TCG sales also undoubtedly contributed to GameStop’s collectible sales increase of 55% in Q1 2025 (see “GameStop Collectible Sales Soar“), which is another indicator of its hotness at mass. Long story made short: Pokemon TCG is still hotter than ever, and that doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon.
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