Hasbro says new digital Magic experiences are coming beyond MTG Arena

New 'digital iterations' of Magic: The Gathering will roll out in the coming years

If Magic: The Gathering’s mobile video game MTG Arena has a glaring flaw, it’s that the experience is locked into 1v1 matches and omits the trading card game’s most popular format: Commander. Based on comments from Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks during a May 20 earnings call, the company is keenly aware of this — and is in the process of developing new “digital iterations” of Magic.

Hasbro reported Wednesday that Wizards of the Coast revenue grew 26% year-over-year to $582 million, driven largely by Magic. (That could put Wizards of the Coast on track to earn $2 billion in 2026, if revenue maintains this pace.) 2026’s first set, Lorwyn Eclipsed, was the best-selling first-party set ever, meaning that it takes place within the Magic multiverse and doesn’t leverage any crossovers via Universes Beyond. Cocks said that April’s Secrets of Strixhaven, however, “handily beat Lorwyn Eclipsed.” He also said that March’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at least met sales expectations, hinting that it may have exceeded them.

During the Q&A portion at the end of the call, Cocks fielded a question about Arena’s declining portion of Magic’s overall business. When it was first released in 2019, Arena generated between 20 to 25% of Magic’s revenue. Today, it’s less than 10%.

“What you're seeing with Arena, and why it's a shrinking percentage of total Magic sales is Arena was designed for one format of play, which is called Standard, kind of a one-on-one, very competitive form of play,” Cocks said, adding that a lot of Magic’s growth in recent years has been driven by two major factors: the rising popularity of Commander and collectibles like Secret Lair and collector boosters.

Collector boosters are much more expensive booster packs that guarantee you’re getting rarer cards. And Secret Lair is an experimental offshoot of Magic sales offering reprinted cards with exclusive art and sometimes special crossovers.

“I think in the future, what you'll see from us as we invest in new digital iterations of Magic, both on Arena and outside of Arena, is leaning into those insights that have driven the overall ecosystem,” Cocks said. “So more Universes Beyond, more collectibility, more tradability, and more social kinds of multiplayer-oriented play.”

While Arena does have a Brawl game mode that’s functionally similar to Commander, where you designate one legendary creature as the headliner of a 100-card deck, it’s still limited to 1v1. Traditional Commander puts four players together at a table in a socially focused free-for-all. Since the beginning, Arena has felt borderline antisocial. While you can challenge friends directly, chat is limited to emotes, stickers, and phrases. The worst thing you can do is spam “Your go” over and over at your opponents.

In light of a deal announced earlier this week to bring Marvel sets to Arena, Universes Beyond will be well represented in the digital version of the game. Assessing “collectibility” in Arena is a bit trickier, since wildcards allow you to claim just about any card in the game. And while there are a bunch of art variants on Arena, it doesn’t exactly capture the lucrative exclusivity promised by something like Secret Lair.

Based on these comments from Cocks, it sure sounds like Wizards of the Coast is developing some kind of digital version of Commander that will be more social than Arena. Maybe you can upload decklists and play remotely with friends using some kind of group chat? I’ve long dreamed of a digital version of Magic where your library of cards is a one-to-one representation of physical cards you own. Buy a card digitally and get a printed copy. Scan your physical cards after you rip a booster pack, and they get added to your digital library. The “more tradability” comment from Cocks is also interesting, because you can’t trade cards in Arena.

What does a digital version of Magic look like that’s a better representation of a true “trading card game”? That’s something I’ve wondered for a very long time, and if Cocks’ comments are any indication, then it’s something we’re going to see roll out over the next few years.