Mattel Struggles As Hasbro Wins With Adults

In the battle for the toy chest, “all ages” means different things to the world’s two biggest toy companies. 

Shares of Barbie-maker Mattel plunged 25% on Wednesday following a massively disappointing after-the-bell earnings call the day before that showed slow holiday toy sales. Rival Hasbro, on the other hand, saw shares climb to a six-year high following its own earnings call highlighted by robust sales for Magic: The Gathering, its more adult-oriented card-game-turned-ultra-popular-video-game.

Toy Story

Winning over adults as much as kids has been a sound strategy for toy companies for a while now, much to the chagrin of anyone worried about widespread arrested development. Lego for instance has rebuilt its business, tiny plastic brick by brick, into a formidable machine by increasingly catering to adult customers.

Hasbro has successfully chased the older crowd straight into the digital realm, a strategy that Mattel is belatedly copying:

• In its earnings call, Hasbro reported full-year revenue growth of 14%, driven by 45% revenue growth in its Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment, which includes Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. Sales of the former game leapt nearly 60% year-over-year in 2025; sales of consumer products (i.e., actual toys) fell 4%.
• On top of a revenue miss, Mattel announced a lower-than-expected guidance for 2026, due in part to the cost of a $159 million strategic investment to take full control of Mattel163, the mobile game studio it operated as a joint venture with NetEase.

“We think the investment in digital games should pay off longer-term, but adds more questions in the near-term as we thought the setup for 2026 would be more focused on growth in toys from normalized order patterns,” D.A. Davidson analyst Keegan Cox wrote in a note.

It’s Showtime: While Mattel is just starting to catch up to Hasbro’s video game ambitions, both companies remain steadfastly committed to Hollywood. Hasbro, which has spent most of the century milking its Transformers franchise, is gearing up for a Voltron movie to be released by Amazon MGM Studios later this year. Meanwhile Mattel, still riding the high from its 2023 “Barbie” blockbuster, is releasing a Masters of the Universe movie with Amazon MGM in June, followed by a Matchbox flick starring John Cena to be released on Apple TV in October. Next up? A Barney movie produced by every Film Bro’s favorite studio, A24. Seriously.