Asmodee’s first full-year results since €2.75bn Embracer buyout shows board games sales declined in ‘hesitant’ Q4

Tabletop gaming giant Asmodee saw its board game sales decline slightly in Q4 due to a “more hesitant market environment”, figures from the company’s first full-year results since its €2.75bn buyout by Embracer group show.

Embracer’s full-year results for the 2022/23 financial year show just how huge an acquisition Asmodee was for the business, which previously focused on video games and mobile games.

Asmodee recorded about $1.22bn of sales in the last financial year – comparable to the $1.25bn for Embracer’s video games segment, which includes franchises such as Tomb Raider, Borderlands, Metro Exodus and Dead Island.

Despite that, tabletop games barely got a mention in the comments from Embracer co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors accompanying the report, which was largely devoted to video games.

The report described Asmodee has having a “solid” Q4 in what it described as a “seasonally quiet quarter”, driven by a strong performance in the UK and Central Europe.

Net sales for Asmodee’s tabletop games segment came in at just over $280m for the fourth quarter of 2022, a 6% increase thanks to strong performance from trading cards.

Embarcer’s PC and console games sales jumped 66% in Q4 to reach about $325m – just ahead of its tabletop gaming sales – while its mobile games division saw sales decline 25% to about $123m.

Asmodee distributes trading card games such as Pokemon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, as well as publishing board games under 22 subsidiaries including Catan Studio, Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight Games, Lookout Games and Z-Men Games.

Its biggest IPs include Ticket to Ride, Catan, Splendor, 7 Wonders, Azul, Exploding Kittens, Dobble/Spot It! and Star Wars: Legion.

The firm’s stock price slumped in the wake of the report, which revealed a $2bn partnership deal with an unknown entity had fallen through.

Wingefors said, “It has been a challenging year, adversely impacted by game delays, weaker consumer demand and lackluster reception for certain notable releases.”