TCG Industry Insights: The Player’s Journey

The Trading Card Game (TCG) industry has seen a surge in interest from both players and investors in recent years, with Magic generating over $1.1B in revenue in 2022 and Pokémon selling nearly 10B cards in the 2022-23 fiscal year. In a 2023 Earnings Call, the CEO of Hasbro has stated that an average Magic player sticks around for 5-7 years, accruing $500-1000 in total revenue for the company. The total value of the TCG industry as a whole has been estimated to hit anywhere from $4B USD by 2027 to $11B by 2030, with a CAGR of 6-7%.

The Big Three continue to thrive in 2023, with Magic successfully marching into IP crossover territory with its newest Lord of the Rings set, Pokémon capturing on the popularity of its Scarlet & Violet series as it releases new Path to the Peak anime shorts, and Yugioh seeing continued success with Master Duel. Meanwhile, challengers abound: Disney Lorcana is flying off the shelves alongside One Piece, Flesh & Blood continues its quiet uphill trend of organic growth, and UniVersus has rebranded to focus more on anime IP crossovers and long-term community building. Ebay has its sights set on the industry as well, with its 2022 acquisition of TCGplayer, the #1 TCG “singles” marketplace in the United States.

Despite the emerging interest in the industry, the player’s journey into the world of TCGs can still seem somewhat opaque to those without first-hand experience. As such, we hope to provide some insights to help people from a wide variety of backgrounds understand the TCG lifestyle from a player’s perspective, regardless of their game of choice.

Stage 1: Getting into the game

If you ask around, you’ll find that most players were introduced to TCGs by friends at home, school, summer camp, church, and conventions. According to a blog post from 2021 by Mark Rosewater, Head Game Designer at Wizards of the Coast, less than 10% of players have ever played in an official Magic event at a convention or local game store.

At its essence, playing a TCG is comparable to playing an asymmetric game of chess, with each player bringing their own set of pieces. Some players may decide to swap out their knights for an extra pair of bishops, while others may trade out their 9-point queen for an extra row of pawns to overwhelm their foes. There is strategy not only in executing your game plan during a match, but also in deciding which pieces to bring to the table. While many players prioritize whichever strategy maximizes their win rate, many others see the theme of their 40- or 60-card deck as a means of self-expression.

Three major reasons stand out to me when it comes to why players would pick up a TCG, in no particular order:

The game’s strategic depth, as intensive decision-making forms the bedrock of gameplay for any TCG, while the wide variety of options encourage creativity and innovation in deckbuilding
IP familiarity, especially in the case of popular media franchises like Pokémon, Yugioh, Magic’s Universes Beyond IPs, and UniVersus’s My Hero Academia
The social aspect: “All my friends are playing, so I want to join in on the fun”

As a player develops interest, they usually learn in the two following ways:

In-Person: As TCGs are fundamentally multiplayer games, players are strongly incentivized to become evangelists and bring their friends onboard. Players will often learn by borrowing their friends’ decks, buying starter decks and playing with trial and error, or going to their local game store for learn-to-play sessions. Companies like Pokémon and Wizards also often host learn to play events at gaming conventions like PAX, and offer affordable intro products for first-time players to pick up.

Digital: In addition to the plethora of learn-to-play videos on YouTube, many TCGs have a modern digital version of their game to help newcomers pick up the basics: Pokémon Live, Magic Arena, and Yugioh Master Duel. Digimon and One Piece have also both released bite-sized mobile apps that feature simple, replayable demo experiences to help newcomers master the basics.

At this stage, players might have a basic deck of their own as they learn the ropes, or they might just play with what their friends have. If they enjoy the game and dive deeper, then they’ll move on to the next stage.

Stage 2: Casual Play

I’ve often seen TCG playgroups consist of two types of players: A core group of dedicated players who ramp up quickly and play on a daily or weekly basis, and a peripheral group that plays less often, usually biweekly or monthly, and primarily learns from the core group. The number of players in each group may vary, though having 4-6 total players is generally enough to start a local scene.

Many people think that most TCG play happens at the local game store (LGS), which is a common misconception. Doing some quick math with Magic’s stats proves this point: If each of the 6,000+ WPN stores worldwide has 50 players (a ballpark estimate) that regularly attend in-store events each week, that adds up to a total of 300k players worldwide. This is only 2-3% of Hasbro’s 10-15M “active player” estimate (see 10:40-11:10 in this video), and even less of its 50M “total player” estimate (recording, summary). Furthermore, even if these 50 regulars represent a rotating loyal customer base of 500 players, the resulting 3M still only represents 20-30% of the active player total. Visiting local game stores across the US will reveal that most stores have enough space for 30-40 players, but often struggle to seat 50+ at once, and player attendance on a per-event basis rarely approaches max capacity. This means that, while local game stores do serve as robust play hubs, the vast majority of TCG gameplay happens outside of official stores.

Where is the bulk of TCG gameplay happening, then? In homes and social spaces. At gaming clubs after school. Over dinner tables on weekends, during holiday family gatherings, and at every other campground and third space you can think of. TCG players are enthusiastic about their hobby, and any table-sized platform can be a perfect opportunity.

From a product standpoint, casual players will likely already have a deck of their own, and play however their friends like to play. They will probably have spent around $20-40 on cards, as intro decks for most TCGs cost $10-20, and booster packs (which contain cards to upgrade your deck with) cost around $4 apiece. They might have some TCG accessories such as card sleeves and a deck box, but rarely ever the full suite, which includes a playmat, a binder, tokens, and dice.

From a gameplay perspective, players at this stage are generally familiar with the fundamental rules of the game, but they may still struggle with new keywords and card combos. They may have swapped a few cards out of their decks, but they’re unlikely to have built an entirely new deck from scratch. They may have come across the Professor’s YouTube channel and watched his learn to play and product review videos for different TCGs. They might skim the official TCG website and discover the store locator page (Magic, Pokémon, Yugioh, Flesh and Blood, UniVersus) that lets them find the nearest local game store that hosts official events, and they’re likely to feel both excited and anxious about playing against the more experienced players there. Most of these resources are shared through word-of-mouth as players come across them organically, but in local playgroups, the most invested “ringleader” usually does a good job of spreading the word and getting everybody up to speed.

Based on Maro’s comment, we can tell that the vast majority of players remain at this stage for most of their TCG tenure. They enjoy the game enough to play with friends, but not enough to go spend an entire afternoon or evening at their local game store. If they want to dive deeper, however, they’ll start getting more involved. They’ll start buying preconstructed decks that are more complex and competitive (usually $30-50 per deck), and they may even save up for an entire booster box ($80-120 for 24-36 packs).

If their appetite is whetted, they’ll move on to the next stage.

Stage 3: Enfranchised Play

As a player dives deeper into a TCG, the doors will open to a flood of new information. Player journeys tend to branch and spiral out at this stage, following a winding, exploratory path largely determined by their personal interests and available opportunities. Many will start participating in organized play events at their LGS, follow community conversations on Facebook, Twitter/X, Reddit, and Discord, and become more engaged with the ecosystem of online TCG resource websites. Their average weekly/monthly play time will likely increase, but a bigger spike will likely occur in the amount of time they spend outside of immediate gameplay – mainly on research and deckbuilding. The typical engagement loop sees a player piloting their deck for a few games, adjusting their strategy as they discover new cards, and repeating the play-edit cycle until they get their deck “just right”, or move on to try out a different strategy.

In terms of out-of-pocket spend, a regular weekday TCG event at a local game store usually costs $5-15 to join, while prereleases generally cost around $30. A player that buys a $30 preconstructed deck and a $100 booster box before attending a couple of events will easily end up spending $200+ that year on their favorite hobby. A player that buys a $4 booster pack every other week will still end up spending around $100 each year, and even singles purchases from TCGplayer can quickly add up. The arms race of “playgroup power creep” can further accelerate this increase in spend, as players upgrade and diversify their decks to keep up with the biggest spenders in their circle.

Learning more about the game includes learning about community resources as well. Below, I’ve made a list of common TCG elements and resources that players will come across in some shape or form, regardless of their game of choice. While not every player will be intimately familiar with everything here, and not every TCG has the complete suite, most players will eventually be aware of 80% of the following topics within their first year of enfranchised play:

Deck Construction: As players become adept, they will edit their decks more and start building new ones from scratch, often revolving around specific strategies and characters. For the most part, they will begin by using the cards they already own and what they can trade for from their friends’ collections, before moving on to acquire stronger cards through buying booster packs from their local game store, Amazon, or retailers like Walmart, Target, and Costco. As they discover new cards through online articles, videos, and conversations with other players, they’ll start ordering “singles” from online marketplaces such as TCGplayer and Card Kingdom in the US, Cardmarket in the EU, and Hareruya, Bigweb, and Yuyu-Tei in Japan. While many players also use these marketplaces to look up new cards and check prices, many others will come across dedicated community-run TCG databases like ScryFall and EDHRec for Magic, FaBDB and FaBrary for Flesh and Blood, and pkmcards for Pokémon, as they search and filter for cards en masse. Larger games like Magic even have modern deckbuilding sites like Moxfield and Archidekt that provide automatic data & price analytics.

Gameplay Formats: Players often gravitate towards whichever “way to play” is popular within their playgroup, and while each TCG has a specific set of overarching rules that always apply, some larger TCGs have multiple ways to play that attract different audiences. Magic, for instance, started out as a strictly two-player game where players bring 60-card decks built from any cards they owned, but it has since branched out to include multiplayer formats like Commander for groups of 3+ players, “Limited” formats like Draft and Sealed where players open packs to build decks on the fly, and constructed formats like Standard, Pioneer, and Modern that only allow specific selections of cards (the past 2-3 years, 2012 onwards, 2003 onwards) with corresponding banlists. Pokémon primarily focuses on its Standard and Expanded formats, with alternative formats available in specific settings. Yugioh predominantly focuses on its Advanced Format, while Flesh and Blood offers a collection of formats similar to Magic.

Advance Releases in Japan: Enfranchised players of most Japanese TCGs like Pokémon and Yugioh will inevitably discover that the newest cards and products are usually released in Japan first, with the international/English versions releasing worldwide 3-6 months later. Yugioh is famous for the split between its OCG (Japanese) and TCG (International) formats, as different card selections and availability affect the banlists and dominant gameplay strategies in each region. In more extreme cases, like with Bushiroad’s Weiss Schwarz, sets like Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel may never make it into English at all due to licensing restrictions, thereby creating an even bigger divide between its Japanese and international fanbases. Player attitudes toward this can vary greatly: Many won’t care at all, especially those fluent in reading Japanese, but competitive players without convenient access to Japanese product may find it disheartening to always fall behind on the latest updates.

Organized Play (OP): Most local games stores run weekly events in the form of Friday Night Magic, Play! Pokémon events, and Flesh & Blood Armories, as well as bi/monthly Prerelease events (industry-standard OP events that attract larger crowds than usual by offering players the opportunity to acquire and play with new cards a week before the set officially goes on sale). These OP events are generally low-stakes, attracting a mix of new and experienced players testing the waters and playing just for fun. To reward participation and performance, stores will usually hand out special promotional cards and boosters that are specifically provided as prize support by official sources. To participate in Organized Play, players usually need to sign up for an official account and provide varying levels of personal information.

Competitive Play: Players who want to test their skill at the highest level will participate in competitive OP events like Regionals (Magic, Pokémon, Yugioh, FAB) every few months to rack up League/Pro play points, which qualify them for larger-scale international tournaments. Competitive OP events usually require players to travel to specific cities to play for an entire weekend, and often double as TCG-themed conventions where prominent artists, influencers, and cosplayers come together to celebrate their passion for the game. Players who consistently place high enough can earn a few thousand USD each year (see Magic, FAB, Pokémon prize pools), which leads many “pro” players to form teams to diversify their strategies and practice matchups with. While the low EV of competitive TCG play makes it more of a hobby than a viable career path, some top players have managed to make a small living through a combination of sponsorships, coaching, and independent content creation.

Gear & Accessories: A full set of TCG gear consists of card sleeves ($1-15 for 100), deck boxes ($5-20 each), a playmat ($15-30 each), a card binder ($20-30), and tokens/dice ($5-20 per set). While a beginner can “gear up” for just $30-50, an industry-standard set from UltraPro, Dragon Shield, or Ultimate Guard will usually cost around $100, while designer accessories like Wyrmwood Deck Boxes can go for over $100 apiece. Outside of local game stores and Amazon, Inked, Etsy, and Temu are all popular destinations for TCG gear, as well as community-favorite independent creators like metalfabtokens.

Online Play: In addition to the SaaS games of Pokémon Live, Magic Arena, and Yugioh Master Duel, which tend to focus on competitive PvP gameplay that caters more to experienced players, some TCGs feature additional ways to play online. Magic has SpellTable, a free, cutting-edge webapp that uses computer-vision AI/ML technology to enable remote play with physical cards, as well as the classic MTG Online that features a much larger card pool than Arena in exchange for a more outdated interface. Flesh and Blood has the impressive community-run platform Talishar, which allows players to play casual games by linking in deck lists from FaBDB and FaBrary.

Other Community Resources: Regardless of their TCG of choice, players are bound to come across the Tolarian Community College YouTube channel at some point in their journey, where “The Professor” has created an enormous catalogue of learn-to-play videos, product & accessory reviews, and gameplay demonstrations over the past decade for a number of different TCGs. Other prominent community influencers and news sources include The Command Zone, MTG Goldfish, and MythicSpoilers for Magic, JustinBasil and PokéBeach for Pokémon, and Team APS for Yugioh.

Stage 4: Leaving the Game

People don’t like to talk about this, but eventually, all things come to an end. The official statistic of the average Magic player tenure being 5-7 years makes sense: Many people pick up TCGs during high school, college, and early adulthood, which are transitional phases of life that often accompany a reset in schedules, priorities, and friend groups every 4-5 years. The time constraints of starting a new job, meeting new people, and taking on additional responsibilities can all contribute to TCGs dropping out from a person’s priority list. Financial constraints can come into play as well, when players assess their spending patterns and find themselves unable or unwilling to drop hundreds or thousands on a single hobby. In some cases, players may quit or migrate to another TCG due to ongoing issues with gameplay balance and product policies, while in other cases, players might be forced to leave after a new TCG fizzles out and goes bankrupt after 2-3 years due to unsustainable business models.

For casual players, quitting may be as simple as shelving their cards away or giving them to a relative. For players with sizable collections, however, it might be a major undertaking. Enfranchised players looking to liquidate their collections for cash often do so in bulk at their local game stores, through online sellers like Card Kingdom or TCGplayer, or sometimes on eBay and via garage sales. Depending on the venue, they can generally expect to earn back between 30-70% of market price on cards over $1, while the “bulk” cards under $1 that make up 80%+ of most collections usually sell for significantly less. Alternatively, players not opting for financial returns may instead choose to donate their cards to organizations like Magikids, an amazing community-run 501(c)(3) charity that mobilizes volunteers to compile donated Magic cards into learn-to-play kits and send them to schools and libraries on-demand.

Stage 5: Rekindling Interest

Lapsed players are not completely lost, as old-school TCGs know well. For games that have withstood the test of time, there are many instances of players who have returned after years of hiatus, possibly after meeting people who play again, or because a recent set has piqued their interest. Master Duel was downloaded by waves of dormant Yugioh players, and many parents have likely found themselves finally learning how to play the Pokémon TCG post-COVID with the new Battle Academy alongside their kids. Returning Magic players often lament getting rid of their old collections when they see how much those cards are now worth, even as they experience the excitement of seeing how far the game has come in the 10-20 years they’ve been away.

Once a customer, always a customer, and the fond memories of playing any TCG will stick with its players for life.

To wrap up

We hope that this article has been of some help to you in understanding the journey that TCG players take as they dedicate their time and resources to their favorite hobby. If you would like to learn more about a specific TCG, it is always a good idea to swing by your local game store during the weekend, and if you would like to learn more about TCG game design in general, Mark Rosewater’s Making Magic column is one of the best resources out there.

Until next time!