Baldur's Gate 3 brought in $90 million for Hasbro in 2023, fueling its Digital Gaming segment's growth

Hasbro has released its financial report for the full year ended December 31, 2023. Despite an overall revenue decline, the company saw solid growth in its Digital Gaming segment thanks to the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Monopoly Go.

How did Baldur’s Gate 3 impact Hasbro’s financials?

During an earnings call, Hasbro CFO Gina Goetter revealed that Baldur’s Gate 3 brought in around $90 million in revenue for the company from its August launch through December 31. And Hasbro expects the game to have a long tail.

“That’s going to stay with us all year [in 2024],” Goetter noted. “Obviously, not at the same extent that we saw played during Q3 and Q4, but we’ll still be selling units and making revenue and profit off of that product.”

The terms of the licensing deal between Hasbro and Larian Studios remain undisclosed, so it is impossible to estimate how much money Baldur’s Gate 3 made for the Belgian studio based on that $90 million mentioned above.

Given the success of BG3, Hasbro expects video games to be a “huge leg up on the D&D business,” with CEO Chris Cocks saying that it is “just the first of several new video games that will be coming out over the next 5 to 10 years that I think will continue to power that franchise.”

Hasbro’s financial results for 2023

• According to its full-year report, Hasbro reached just over $5 billion in net revenue in 2023, down 15% year-over-year.
• The company’s net loss was $1.49 billion, compared to net profit of $203 million in 2022. It was largely driven by the recent divestment of its eOne film and TV business, which resulted in a $1+ billion loss in Q4 alone.
• The Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment was the only business unit to show growth, with its full-year revenue growing 10% year-over-year to $1.45 billion.
• It was mostly driven by an increase in licensed gaming revenue driven by the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) and Monopoly Go! (Scopely).
• Overall, Wizards of the Coast’s digital and licensed gaming revenue reached $385.1 million last year, up 49% compared to 2022.
• Speaking of Monopoly Go!, Cocks noted that “in Q4 alone, the game drove more than $800 million in revenue worldwide for Scopely.” He didn’t provide much details about Hasbro’s licensing deal with the developer, only saying that “as far as our financial participation goes for revenue and profit, it’s like having the equivalent of $1 billion movie supporting Monopoly, except every year, with the impact growing sequentially as the game works through our minimum guarantees and marketing allowances.”
• Following the release of the full-year report, Hasbro shares were down 12% at $44.9 in premarketing trading (via The Wall Street Journal).