Stonemaier’s “pretty big gamble” with large Wyrmspan print run pays off, as soaring sales help company’s revenue surge to $23.7m

Wingspan publisher Stonemaier Games‘ revenue soared more than 40% to $23.7m last year, after a gamble on a hefty initial print run for new release Wyrmspan led to the game having the best first year for sales in the company’s 13-year history.

Stonemaier sold more than 303,000 copies of Wyrmspan last year – a figure that despite already high hopes went “far beyond my wildest dreams”, company co-founder Jamey Stegmaier told BoardGameWire.

He said, “In a single year, it outsold Viticulture’s lifetime units – and Viticulture is one of our bestselling evergreen products.

“We made a pretty big gamble in an initial print run of 100,000 units of Wyrmspan, and then we gathered orders from distributors – and Barnes & Noble, where it has sold very well – and reprinted it a few times throughout the year.”

Wyrmspan’s success, coupled with more than 277,000 sales of evergreen title Wingspan and its Asia expansion last year, helped Stonemaier end a two-year fall in revenue – which began after the company sealed a record $24.7m amid the pandemic board game boom in 2021.

Profit was up a hefty 60% year-on-year, Stegmaier said, with myriad small improvements across the business being boosted by the company’s localisation partner revenue increasing by more than $1m in 2024.

About half of Stonemaier’s revenue last year came via sales to distribution, 22% from its own web store, 13% from localisation, 7% from direct sales to hobby retailers, 6% through Amazon fulfillment and 3% from digital game royalties.

Wyrmspan, designed by Connie Vogelmann, marked Stonemaier’s expansion of its millions-selling bird-themed tableau builder Wingspan into new standalone games – a process which was concluded with the release of the trilogy’s final title, Finspan, two months ago.

Stegmaier said an expansion for the dragon-themed title was coming in late 2025, adding that he expected a new expansion for Wingspan to enter production “by early summer if all goes well”.

He said, “Wingspan and its expansions sell well – our job is just to keep it in stock.”

Elizabeth Hargrave’s design Wingspan quickly became Stonemaier’s highest-selling title by a considerable margin following its release in 2019, with more than 1.9 million copies sold over the following five years.

That figure has now jumped to more than 2.4 million across the base game and expansion Wingspan Asia, which also operates as a standalone two-player game.

Stonemaier’s next biggest lifetime seller, Scythe, had a much quieter year, selling 9,000 copies to bring its total sales since release to just under 560,000.

Stegmaier said, “Scythe continues to sell well, but it had plenty of units in circulation going into 2024. We actually ran out of stock of Scythe earlier than expected at the end of 2024 – it was out of stock for around 3 months [and is back now].”

Stegmaier told BoardGameWire in March last year that he was unsure about the future of Scythe sequel Expeditions, which had sold 70,000 copies across 2023.

That game posted 7,000 sales last year, and Stegmaier confirmed a second expansion for the title would be coming in 2026.

Stonemaier’s evergreen winemaking eurogame Viticulture sold 23,000 copies last year, bringing its lifetime total to almost 267,000, while bees in space worker placement game Apiary sold about 16,500 and Rolling Realms Redux – a standalone version of its 2021 release which adds 12 new realms – sold 13,000.

Stegmaier told BoardGameWire, “Viticulture is one of those games that sells around 10-20k units consistently every year, and I continue to support it largely by sending out review copies – we’ll continue to make it in its current Essential Edition form.

“2024 was Apiary’s second year, and it had a nice boost thanks to the expansion. Rolling Realms was joined by Rolling Realms Redux in 2024, which exponentially expands the replayability of the core game.

“Of those, I would say that only Rolling Realms Redux has performed slightly worse than expected, perhaps due to the large number of existing realms for the game.”

Stegmaier said Stamp Swap, the company’s other 2024 release, had “done pretty well” in selling 34,000 copies, adding that the lower price point of the game “certainly helped”

He said, “It’s also a great convention game due to the simultaneous play, high levels of interaction, and shorter playing time.”

When asked if interest in 2019 release Tapestry, which sold just 3,000 copies last year, had tapered off to the point it might not be reprinted, Stegmaier said, “It may not sound like much compared to Wyrmspan, but given how expensive Tapestry is to make, I’m delighted that we had demand for another 3,000 units.

“I filmed a video last year in which I asked people who have played all of our games to rank our games, and Tapestry was the number one favorite for over half of them.

“I view Tapestry as complete – through three expansions and a Folded Space insert so everything fits neatly in the original box – and my biggest hope is that the full digital version will finally release in 2025.”

Stegmaier said 2025 would be “the year of Tokaido” for the company, following its acquisition of the entire line of games from financially troubled French publisher FunForge last October – enabling the latter to rebuild and refocus its business.

Stegmaier said the Stonemaier version of the base game would be released next month, followed by the company’s version of Tokaido Duo later in the year.

He said, “That brand acquisition is definitely an outlier for us – we didn’t plan for it, and we’re not pursuing anything else like it.

“I’m excited to bring our quality-of-life improvements to the already incredible games in that lineup, and I’m hoping for the opportunity to work with [designer Antoine Bauza] and [artist Xavier ‘Naiiade’ Durin] on a new game when they’re ready.”

Stonemaier’s other big 2025 release, open world co-op adventure game Vantage, is expected to launch in the middle of the year.

Stonemaier Lifetime and 2024 Sales

Wyrmspan: 303,396 units
Stamp Swap: 34,000 units

Wingspan & Wingspan Asia: 2,409,743 lifetime units, +277,940 compared to 2023
Viticulture: 266,834 units, +23,000
Apiary: 46,504 units, +16,504
Rolling Realms & Rolling Realms Redux: 56,000 units, +13,000
Between Two Castles: 58,000 units, +1,100
Scythe: 559,602 units, +9,000
Expeditions: 77,500 units, +7,000
Smitten: 15,000 units, +4,000
Tapestry: 87,650 units, +3,000

Red Rising: 154,800 units, +0
Charterstone: 97,500 units, +0
My Little Scythe: 68,500 units, +0
Libertalia: 62,584 units, +0
Between Two Cities: 56,900 units, +0
Pendulum: 49,200 units, +0
Euphoria: 44,000 units, +0