The end of 2025 is upon us. As ICv2 contributors have told you throughout the year, the only predictable element of this year was unpredictability. It seems like we’ve had the most random dishes in the kitchen sink thrown at us: Diamond imploded (see “Court Orders Chapter 7“); erratic tariffs sent businesses into panic mode (see “Erratic U.S. Tariff Policy“); and various game companies closed up shop (see “Close Up Shop“). But despite these challenges, the underlying games business was actually doing well, supported by booming TCG sales and growth in independent retail (see “Five Huge Trends“).
There were a few interesting storylines that developed over the course of 2025 that may be plot hooks for events that play out in 2026. Consider some of these developments while reading the tea leaves for the new year:
TCGs and Collectibles as Assets. This story gained momentum during the Q4 auction season. Ken Goldin and Logan Paul both started making a real push for collectibles to be seen as alternative assets for Millennial and Gen X investors (see “‘Accepted Alternative Asset’“). Different people have attempted to make this push in the past, but the most recent push seems more real, primarily because it is happening on the cusp of a major generational shift in the types of items collectors are seeking to acquire.
In the 20th Century, purchasing alternative assets generally meant buying artwork, antique furniture, or rare coins. But in the 21st Century, collectors in their 40s and 50s have moved more towards geek culture assets (TCGs, comics, and original artwork) and wearable assets like high-end jewelry and limited-edition shoes. This group will presumably have influence over the collectibles market into the future, so look for this movement to gain further traction in the coming years.
Welcome to the Late 80s (aka Late 2020s). Throughout the year, I’ve been saying that “I feel like I’m living 1987 all over again.” I make the comparison of 2025 to 1987 because 1987 was a year where consumerism as pop culture was a major trend, but in the background, the macroeconomic and geopolitical picture was getting messy. On 1987 Main Street, there was a slowdown in consumer spending from 1986 due to rising health care and energy costs. However, consumerism was a key element of pop culture at the time, so people kept spending money on trendy items like designer clothing, Saturday morning cartoon-based games and toys, and popular tech like Nintendo games and CD players.
While 1987 Main Street residents were living in Madonna’s material world, Wall Street was sending up the red flags of a shifting economy. CPI rose about 4.1% in 1987, which was higher than the year before but still much lower than the inflation experienced in the early 80s. Precious metals prices ran up due to dollar weakness, geopolitical events occurred that further destabilized the Middle East and Soviet Union, and to cap off the year, in October 1987, an overvalued stock market crashed.
If some of this sounds familiar, it is because similar events also happened in 2025 (except with new players and improved technology). History often repeats itself in different forms, so look to the end of the 80s for clues on what may happen next. By this logic, the end of the 2020s could feature further retail spending despite inflation pressures, all while the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment creates a roller coaster of challenges into the end of the decade.
Diving into Licensing Depths. Licensed games and game-related merch have been a growing segment of the market for years now, but licensing in the games industry went to a new level in 2025 with multi-licensed games and game accessories (see “‘Collector Supplies“). The best-of-breed for geek culture-related licenses (Marvel, Pokemon, D&D, etc) have largely been tapped by game publishers (repeatedly); some of these licenses have been stretched so far that they are now featured on an array of niche-outlier crossover products (see “Crochet a Bag of Holding” and “Chicago Toy & Game Fair 2025 in Photos“).
Game publishers took a deep dive into licensing in 2025 to find IPs with less mileage. Renegade Game Studios deserves a lot of credit for their licensing exploration efforts as they ventured into two relatively fresh areas: podcasts and LitRPGs. They published Welcome to Night Vale in September, which was based on a horror podcast by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (see “‘Welcome to Night Vale RPG’ “). They’ve also announced a line of Dungeon Crawler Carl games, based on the LitRPG books by Matt Dinniman (see “Renegade Partners with Matt Dinniman”), for 2026. If the Dungeon Crawler Carl games are a hit next year, we could see more LitRPG licenses on games in years to come.
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