A few months ago, a friendly man stopped me in the park.
“Wanna try my board game?” asked Peter Luo, creator of a new game he invented called Galactic Shogun.
I tried out his game, and was instantly intrigued by the game’s elements of deception. (I love a good bluff). He told me he was raising funds through Kickstarter.
I’ve always been curious about how the money flows, so I wrote this feel-good issue about the board game industry.
Today’s article focuses on the tabletop (physical) board game market, the publishers, and the creators like Peter behind it all.
This issue is for both board game geeks (like Stefan and me) and those just curious about how the industry works.
Let’s roll 🎲
Table of Contents
Board games then and now
Ancient Greece and Rome gave us philosophers, democracy, and social systems.
But Ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) is an even older civilization known for the world’s first pieces of writing, laws, architecture — and board games.
I know what you’re thinking. It has to be chess, right?
Nope. That came a couple of millennia later.
Mesopotamia’s Royal Game of Ur was created over 4,600 years ago, a game of strategy and fortune upon a board of stone, lapis lazuli, and wood.
Board games had strategic elements, and became universal pastimes to escape from the hardships of life, transcending social classes.
Board games reflect the times
Even the origins of Monopoly surprised me. Here I thought it was a demonstration of the ultimate American dream. After all, that’s how the Parker Brothers spun it when they bought the patent from Elizabeth Magie in 1935.
But it turns out that Magie thought land was a human right, and created Monopoly in 1904 (originally called “The Landlord’s Game”) as a warning for the dangers of capitalism.
Magie probably never imagined her game becoming the world’s most popular board game of all time. The modern digital version (Monopoly Go) has brought Hasbro an astounding $3 billion in revenue.
The board game market today
In 2024, the worldwide revenue for the board game industry is estimated at just over $8.6 billion — around the same size as the market for laxatives, and web domains.
Sure, this is peanuts compared to the $282 billion annual revenue from video games. But it has increased 300% over the past 2 years, building off the momentum generated during covid.
Board games have many players in their creation. The biggest players aren’t necessarily those who invent games; it’s the companies that publish them.
How board game publishing works
Game publishers are like VCs. They invest in games, using capital and connections to bring an inventor’s game to life.
(Interestingly, they’re also like record labels, funding everything from marketing, to manufacturing, to distribution.)
All they ask for in return is your soul most of the profits and, sometimes, intellectual property rights for your game.
For example, Hasbro owns the IP rights to Game of Life, which stood up in court even when the heirs to the original game designer sought a piece.
Who are the big industry players?
Here are the prominent publishers in the game you need to know about.
Hasbro
Game giant Hasbro publishes some of the world’s best-selling games, including Monopoly, Clue, Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and Yahtzee.
They are known to be picky with the board games they accept. Design and development head Brian Chapman said they receive thousands of submissions each year, and bring ~35 ideas to production.
Asmodee
Based in France, Asmodee Group has been passed around like a game of hot potato.
They currently own the publishing rights to the highly lucrative Settlers of Catan, through its child company, Catan Studio.
Thanks to Catan and other winners like Azul, Ticket to Ride, and Exploding Kittens, Asmodee currently holds $620 million in assets.
Kosmos
When Klaus Teuber created the original Die Siedler Von Catan in 1995, he sold the publishing rights to Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co (better known as simply Kosmos).
The publishing house has been around since the 1800s, and also sells books, children’s toys, and online courses.
Today, they still own the rights for the German version of the game, as well as those for Lost Cities and tabletop Lord of the Rings games.
Marmalade game studio
Marmalade Game Studio produces digital versions of classic games like the Game of Life.
They recently partnered with Hasbro to create Cluedo, the app version of Clue, which has 500,000 downloads at about $8 each.
CMON
CMON Ltd started in 2001 as a rating site for miniatures before publishing tabletop games in 2011.
Based in Singapore, they now sell a variety of board games, from alt-universe strategy games like The World of SMOG to board game versions of popular video games like Bloodborne.
Game publishing royalties
Asmodee and Hasbro typically offer creators royalties from 5% to 8% of the wholesale price, but can go higher for more experienced game creators with a track record.
Just like in books and films, some publishers offer advances on royalties. For example, Stonemaier Games offers a $10,000 advance every time they sign a new game.
Game inventors may score better splits from smaller publishers like The Game Crafter, who offers a 70/30 split of profits. But this comes at the price of far lower distribution.
Cardboard Edison sheds light on royalties deals:
Mergers and acquisitions
Asmodee bought Days of Wonder
In 2014 Asmodee acquired the fast-growing Days of Wonder, estimated to have between $10m – $20m in annual revenue.
DoW was founded in California in 2002, and became famous for games like the train adventure Ticket to Ride (Stefan’s favorite) and Arabian-themed Five Tribes.
According to one of the founders, Days of Wonder wasn’t actually looking to be acquired. The two companies were already publisher-distributor partners, as Asmodee sold copies of DOW’s games to European markets:
“We made sense from [Asmodee’s] perspective as distribution is in their DNA… They have been able to help some other companies get broader distribution.” – Mark Kaufmann, Days of Wonder co-founder
Embracer Group
Sweden-based media holding company Embracer Group is the one to watch here.
In 2022, they acquired Asmodee from French PE firm Pai Partners for €2.75 billion. In doing so, they secured the IP rights to 25 different games.
While Embracer also has holdings in video games and mobile games (Dark Horse Media, Middle Earth Enterprises), the media giant points to tabletop games as a more stable segment than their PC game holdings.
Why? Because physical games have longer sales life cycles that they can predict, and returns that “aren’t as dependent on the number of launches.”
In fact, their board game segment has equally high returns as their PC game segment.
LDC
Even without a formal merger or acquisition, million-dollar deals still happen across game publishers.
Another great example is PE firm LDC, who invested in a ~$50-million deal with Marmalade Game Studios.
The cash helped Marmalade further game development, scale their hiring and achieve 100% revenue growth within three years.
The economics of indie board games
I reached out to Peter Luo (creator of indie game Galactic Shogun) to get insights into what it takes to bring a board game from idea to reality.
He described board game creation as more of a passion project for himself and others in the industry. (Many indie game creators have separate careers.)
His total investment was $8,800 — $1,800 from his savings and $7,000 from his Kickstarter campaign.
Luo made 1,500 copies of his game and sold them each for about $21, with some games going to backers from his Kickstarter campaign.
“Right now I’ve broken even. If anything, a little profit.”
Like basically every creator industry, board games are competitive. For each game that takes off, there are 1,000 you’ll never hear about.
Even when a game does take off, creators have a lot of expenses to pay before they see any profits.
Luo describes the steps he took:
Step 1: Ideation and playtesting
Start from scratch, write down your ideas, and sketch everything out on paper. Create the leanest “MVP” you can, using paper cutouts.
Before investing money in artwork and manufacturing, test out your game with friends or other board game enthusiasts to ensure it flows logically.
“You rarely want to manufacture a sample until you have your game at approximately 95% completion. That way you have less back & forth with the manufacturer.”
Luo playtested his factory samples as well, but specifies that:
- Playtesting happens throughout the entire creation process
- The bulk of playtesting happens with proxies and cutouts
Luo tested his game at the popular Toronto board game cafe Snakes and Lattes (great name).
This cafe is one of seven owned by Snakes and Lattes, Inc. — 3 in Toronto, and the rest in Arizona, Utah, and Illinois. After covid, their revenue jumped 200% to $6m/year.
Step 2: Artwork and design ($1 – $5/copy)
Your game board, playing cards, box, and any other surface will need a design.
If you ask NY independent publisher Pine Island Games, a board game design should run you between $4,000 to $15,000.
Andrei Novac, CEO of game publisher Board & Dice, said art and design costs for the game Origins: First Builders cost around $8,000 from their in-house designers in Poland.
Look on Upwork, Fiverr, or find even more niche artists on the popular Reddit thread r/tabletopartists:
Step 3: Factory samples
With a general idea of your game and initial artwork, you can bring it to life with an initial sample. Hire a manufacturer to make a few copies of your game.
While outsourcing manufacturing overseas is cheaper, that’s only if you make many copies of the same game.
Shanghai-based Longpack Games makes boards, boxes, plush toys, and pieces of plastic, wood, and metal. Use this materials estimator for an accurate quote.
Step 4: Marketing
Marketing starts before the game is developed. And it can be a full-time job in itself.
Luo found it the most challenging part of the process:
“Marketing is the hardest part. If any business-minded people are into board games, it’s a great way to make partnerships! Someone on the marketing side and another on the creative.”
Luo chose Instagram ads to bring more exposure to his Kickstarter campaign, but those could get costly since you tend to get more engagement than actual conversions.
He also approached random people in the park (like me) for exposure, and to gather support for his Kickstarter campaign.
This stuck with me and left such a strong impression because I admire people who “roll up their sleeves” so to speak, and make a genuine effort to engage with people when marketing themselves. Much more effective and memorable than an ad (in my opinion), but definitely time-consuming.
Reddit and TikTok are great marketing channels for this industry.
Step 5: Manufacturing ($2 – $11/copy)
With insights from your playtests, note any tweaks you’d like to make and have a manufacturer create an updated copy of your game.
Most creators like Luo outsource manufacturing to China to keep costs low.
Lucky for him, he already had a connection there and he leveraged his Mandarin to suss out the best price:
“I had a cousin in GuangDong. I also speak Mandarin so talked to each rep and generally understand whether they worked with a small-large third party company. Larger companies want larger jobs, and will charge more. The interesting thing is most go to the same factories anyway so you just need to find a sample that you like.”
One copy of Galactic Shogun cost $2 – $4.60 to produce, including shipping. Given that he sold each copy for $21, that’s a gross profit margin of 80-90%.
But reasonable shipping isn’t the story for every creator, or even publisher for that matter
Andrei Novac said manufacturing costs hit $14 – $16 for the game Origins: First Builders, including shipping (though this was from China to Europe).
Of course, the more components your game has, the more manufacturing will cost.
“Each component will cost you something. So save money by reducing weight (i.e. plastic vs. metal dice) and reducing complexity of pieces.”
Remember, the game creator isn’t necessarily the one responsible for manufacturing more copies if they sign on with a publisher.
Step 6: Publishing
There are two ways to start selling your board game:
- Sign with a publishing house, or
- Self-publish.
In option 1, you submit a factory sample, rules manual, play test results and feedback, and any other information a publisher requests for consideration.
Remember, most publishers still require creators to submit a fully tested prototype, so you’d still need to create and manufacture at least one copy of your game.
However, some publishers will review applications even in the ideation stage. For example, publisher Thames & Kosmos (US subsidiary of German game publisher Kosmos), accepts applications in all stages.
If the publisher accepts, the publisher will manufacture more copies of the game, sell them, and pay the creator royalties.
Luo didn’t go the publisher route for Galactic Shogun. Instead, he decided to self-publish:
“Publishers are very picky and get hundreds of sell sheets. On top of that, they keep most of the profits: they either buy you out of the game with royalties, or take anywhere from 30 to 50% of your profits. And when you account for distributors and stores, you aren’t left with much.”
With self-publishing, the game creator is responsible for manufacturing more copies and finding their own channels to sell their game.
So Luo started selling on his Kickstarter and his own website, as well as organizing events for his game.
Closing thoughts
People tend to think of board games as this niche hobby — especially compared to video games.
It’s certainly much harder to find firms investing in tabletop game publishers compared to mobile & video games. (The latter tends to make much higher returns, given software-like production/distribution costs.)
But tabletop games are still a multi-billion dollar market with cult followers and heavy spenders.
If you’re like me and still love the pre-digital world, you might relish the nostalgia, wonder, and social connections sparked by board games.
And when I hear about passionate creators like Luo who roll the dice in such a competitive niche industry, it’s hard not to feel inspired. 🎲
That’s all for today!
Reply with comments — we read everything.
Until next time, Chrissy
Disclosures
- This issue was written and researched by Chrissy Kapralos, and edited by Stefan von Imhof
- Special thanks to Peter Luo, creator of the board game Galactic Shogun.
- Neither Alts nor Altea has any current holdings in any companies mentioned in this issue
- This issue contains affiliate links to Trading View, and non-affiliate links to Seeking Alpha, an Alts partner.
