Hasbro Wants Adults’ Inner Child

Toy giant Hasbro is shifting its strategy to focus more on teens and adults, who, logically, have more money to spend than kids… and a growing appetite to play with the IP they grew up with.

The Big Game: Hasbro hasn’t exactly been on a financial rollercoaster in recent years, as it enjoyed the highs of a sales surge during COVID. That all reversed as the company grappled with inflation (10 consecutive quarters of declining sales), a bloated balance sheet (a troubled movie studio), and now, tariffs. If focusing on “kidults” can supercharge sales, Hasbro could be in good shape.

Behind the Shift: Hasbro is betting big on nostalgia and has the data to back it up — about 60% of Hasbro’s revenue comes from customers over 13.

• It’s doubling down on toys for evergreen IP like Star Wars, Spider-Man, Furby, and Dungeons & Dragons — which the company expects to “drive much of its margin expansion this year,” per WSJ.
• But it’s going beyond toys — the company is pushing the digital game Monopoly Go!, trading cards for millennial favorite Magic: The Gathering, and even developing and publishing its first in-house video game.
• And Hasbro hasn’t been afraid to partner with rivals — it collaborated with Mattel to outfit Barbies with Play-Doh attire (a trend that started organically with adults).

Future Fun: Hasbro’s growth play comes after considerable cost-cutting. It slashed $600 million in costs, trimmed its product line by two-thirds, and offloaded its eOne movie studio. Now, it has to contend with the White House’s new tariffs — about 50% of Hasbro’s toys and games come from China. So, the company is hoping to get that number down to 40% over the next two years and may increase prices slightly to weather the storm. But if adults don’t mind their favorite toy or next collectible jumping from $7.99 to $8.99, then it could be smooth sailing.