‘Magic: The Gathering’ Looking To Expand Female Player Base With More ‘Women-Centric’ Crossovers: “Don’t Be Surprised If You See Us Poking Into Romantic, Looking At K-Pop Bands”
On the backs of the recent and massive win with they ostensibly just notched with the same demographic thanks to their recent team-up with Final Fantasy, Hasbro has revealed that Wizards of the Coast and Magic: The Gathering are looking to expand the popular TCG’s ‘female appeal’ with a number of specific IP collaborations, the partners of which could span from “romantic” franchises to full-on “K-pop bands”.
This tease towards MTG‘s future was offered by Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks during the company’s Q2 2025 Earnings Call, as held on July 23rd.
During the Q&A portion of the presentation, Cocks pressed by Roth Capital analyst Eric Handler as to what he perceived as a demographic shift in the specific franchises being tapped for the game’s Universes Beyond crossover cards, as based on his own observation that recent collaborations had angled away from ‘classic’ franchises like Doctor Who or Transformers in favor of more recent hits like Final Fantasy, Spider-Man, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
“With regards to your player demographics, in your presentation, it says the average tabletop player is about 35 years old,” said Handler. “Now you’ve got Spider Man, which theoretically skews a bit younger. Avatar [The Last Airbender, which will feature in the year’s final full set) is more of a tweens type product. In [MTG‘s ongoing ‘limited edition’ print collection] Secret Lair, I think you have just put out or will soon be putting out a Secret Lair release for Sonic the Hedgehog, so I’m curious about how you’re thinking about the demographic shift maybe getting younger for Magic.“
In turn, Cocks asserted, “I won’t do the cheeky answer. New player average is always in kind of that 11- to 14-year-old range.”
“The thing is that Magic players just never stop playing. So, the median age goes up over time because people play into their 50s and 60s, and then it starts to become multi-generational. So, we see things like Spider-Man, things like Sonic the Hedgehog, general efforts that we have like Secret Lair that just help us test and learn new IPs as ways for us to be able to expand the demos of the game.
“And then, it’s not just about age. Magic, I think, does better than most hardcore games or enthusiast games in terms of penetration with people who identify as female, but we still have a ways to go there. I think about 30% of the player base today are women, and we’d like to see that increase over time. So, we’re also looking at IPs that could have some resonance there.
“So, don’t be surprised if you see us poking into romantic. Don’t be surprised if you see us looking at K pop bands. Nothing’s off the table.”
To this end, the next official Magic: The Gathering set, as themed around Marvel’s Spider-Man, is currently on track to officially web its way into all legal formats on September 26th.
