Hasbro Thinks One Of ‘Magic: The Gathering’s Upcoming Universes Beyond Sets “Could Rival Or Beat” Best Selling ‘Final Fantasy’
It’s an outcome that will absolutely have to be seen to be believed, but according to Hasbro VP of investor relations Fred Wrightman, one of Magic: The Gathering‘s upcoming 2026 set releases has the genuine potential to “rival” the sheer popularity and sales fervor of the game’s currently best-selling set of all time, Final Fantasy.
As previously confirmed by Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks during the company’s Q2 2025 earnings call, despite having only been on sale for just five weeks, “Final Fantasy, the latest release in our Universes Beyond portfolio is already the highest grossing Magic set ever.”
“Final Fantasy set a record for new player growth, delivering more new players in its first 2 weeks than any prior set posted over an entire season,” he detailed. “Lord of the Rings took 6 months to deliver $200 million of revenue, Final Fantasy took 1 day, and we left demand on the table. We couldn’t produce enough. I think we increased production runs on it 4x pre release. It was substantially by many, many very high double-digit percentages ahead of any other production run we’ve ever done, and we left the market wanting more.”
With Final Fantasy‘s debut winding down, last month’s MagicCon 2025 played host to the reveal of next year’s release schedule, therein confirming that not only will 2026 see Wizards of the Coast publishing seven full sets instead of their usual six, but most of them will be Universes Beyond releases rather than in-universe ones, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel Super Heroes, The Hobbit, and Star Trek falling into the former category and Reality Fracture, Lorwynn Eclipsed, and Secrets of Strixhaven representing the latter.
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And now, just one fiscal quarter after beaming over its success, Wrightman believes Final Fantasy‘s runaway popularity stands to be matched in the near future.
Asked during the Q&A portion of Hasbro’s Q3 2025 earnings call, as held on October 23rd, if any of 2026’s four confirmed Universes Beyond sets – as based on “could actually be bigger than Final Fantasy“, the VP teased, “Final Fantasy is a record breaking set. It’s already the biggest set in Magic’s history. I won’t tell you which one next year we think could rival or beat Final Fantasy, but we definitely see at least one that we think can do that.”
Turning to expand on Hasbro’s general Universes Beyond outlook, Wrightman added, “We haven’t shared with you the content lineup that we have for 2027 and beyond, but we also feel pretty darn good about the partners we have lined up.”
“I mean, this is a great deal for Magic: The Gathering in terms of, hey, we get access to some of the premier IP in the world. It’s a great opportunity for the partners because really there’s never been an opportunity for them to access the trading card business, certainly at the scale Magic: The Gathering is delivering for them. We pretty much have had our pick of partners. I think if you can conceive of a collaboration that we could do with Magic: The Gathering, we probably have inked a deal or are in conversations on a deal on that.
So, place your bets: Between TMNT, Marvel, The Hobbit, and Star Trek, which set does Hasbro think actually stands a chance at rivaling Final Fantasy?
The One More Day-like reception to both the Spider-Man set’s use of the wall-crawler and its setting in New York City suggests its unlikely to be Marvel or TMNT, and Star Trek as a franchise is at all times one bad rating away from a burial at sea.
As such, an educated guess suggests The Hobbit may be the most likely recipient of Hasbro’s excitement – but after The Lord of the Rings covered three-full novels worth of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy tale (and not to mention most of its ‘epic’ moments and characters), one wonders if Bilbo’s solo adventure will actually offer the same novelty as its predecessor.
Either way, the first of 2026’s Universes Beyond outings, as based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is currently set to hit shelves and shells on March 6th.
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