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The past few years have been tough on the tabletop and card gaming industries. With the pandemic making it harder for people to get together to play and closing conventions where many of us found new games to play, it has taken some time to recover. Turns out, 2024 was the year the gaming industry found its footing again and managed to find a sense of normalcy ahead of what will be an uncertain 2025 thanks to President Trump's looming trade war.

A recent report on the state of the hobby gaming industry (which is defined as primarily tabletop roleplaying games, board games, and card games) explained that while there wasn’t massive growth among publishers in 2024, there was a sign that the market as a whole was stabilizing. In the US and Canada, sales were nearly identical between 2024 and 2023 at around $2.84 billion. More than half of that figure remains in the Trading Card Game (TCG) market, with RPGs seeing a small uptick while collectible games had a small decline in sales in 2024.

The big reason was that there were no “big hits” in 2024. No new editions of Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, or Magic: The Gathering to drive sales. While there were plenty of indie games published during the year, none saw the massive sales needed to make a blip in the industry. Gamers saw their purchasing power limited by growing fears around inflation. The study found that in-person gaming remained a key selling point for players following the Covid lockdowns. The big winners of the year were miniatures sales and RPGs, which were driven by the desire for community that players have been feeling.

Interestingly, the crowdfunding site Kickstarter saw a small drop in its pledges for hobby gaming in 2024, from $226 million in 2023 to $220 million in 2024. Meanwhile, Gamefound saw a huge surge in popularity, raising over $85 million in tabletop game pledges in 2024.

This year of stability will be important for the hobby gaming industry as it navigates a tricky 2025. The ongoing trade war started by President Trump will almost certainly have an impact on book publishing and mini manufacturing in the coming year, making it difficult to know exactly how much importing figures and wood from overseas will be.

You don't need to beat the game to prepare for the next one—here are all the major new and upcoming games coming our way.