Rich uncle Pennybags is getting richer because of it Monopoly Go! Forget shelling out $200, the mobile experience is much more pocketable than that these days.
In Hasbro’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday, the toy maker revealed that the mobile video game has generated more than $3 billion in revenue since its launch on April 11, 2023. That made Hasbro the top video game licensee last year, the company. he says.
Hasbro is working with mobile gaming company Scopely on Monopoly Go!-and other licensed titles, such as Scrabble Go again Yahtzee with Buddies. (They didn’t Pokémon Go– that was Niantic.) Monopoly Go! has been the leader of the pack, so popular that last week, the companies launched Monopoly Go! board game (based on a mobile game, based on a board game—yes, we’re giddy thinking about it too).
all year round, Monopoly Go! is expected to make around $105 million in licensing revenue for Hasbro—and company officials admit they may underestimate that, as they’re still getting a feel for how players interact with the game.
“We don’t have a season yet,” Hasbro CEO Chris Cox said on the phone. “However, where I think we have some strength is in the long term [prospects] for the game. If you look at games that reach this ‘hyperscale’ like Monopoly Go! has . . . 10 of the top 20 games have been out for five years or more. Therefore, this is a game that will be a strong and constructive pension for us for a long time to come.”
Since its launch, players have gone through “Go” more than 100 billion times and visited the prison more than 15 billion times, according to Scopely. Over 150 Billion Landmarks Created (the game is more than just an electronic version of Monopoly—players build iconic structures, like bridges or the Mr. Monopoly Statue of Liberty, with money they earn by spinning the board or destroying other players. ).
The game made history in its early days, and, laying claim to the bragging rights of the most successful mobile title launch ever in the US, crossed the $1 billion mark just seven months after its launch, with players sending over 150 million invites. to friends.
Monopoly (the original board game) has been a staple in living rooms for over 100 years. Although a popular myth is that an unemployed salesman named Charles Darrow came up with the game during the depression, somewhere around 1935, that is not necessarily true.
A Quaker named Lizzie Magie, in fact, created the play in 1904 to demonstrate the evils of property ownership. (The original title was “The Landlord’s Game.”) Magie was a supporter of Quaker publican Henry George, and the game focused on players defrauding others.
It was a good thing in the Quaker community—a big one. Another avid fan was a hotelier named Charles Todd, who sometimes played with his guests. Another regular visitor was (you guessed it) Charles Darrow, who asked Todd to write the rules for him.
Once the game started, the Parker Brothers learned their true origins and had to do damage control. It bought the rights for $500 from Magie in 1935, who believed that his original game—and its philosophies—would be distributed. And it was—well, a few hundred copies at least, before it was discontinued. It turns out that people were very happy with Darrow’s tweaks to the game.
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