Disney’s Lorcana Card Game Is One of the Only Successes for the Mouse in 2023: But Can They Capitalize?

In a year of horrible news, Disney struck gold with one very surprising source of revenue. The card game Lorcana has taken the market by storm and is either poised to break out of a niche territory into the mainstream, or perhaps burn out before that moment arrives.

Thank you to reader and viewer PS for contributing significantly to this article.

It appears that Disney Lorcana has gained remarkable popularity, so much so that it’s swiftly flying off the shelves. Ravensburger, the publisher, is now in the position of assuring a reprint to meet the fervent demand for the trading card game. But despite its sailing popularity, some fear a price crash may be on the way for a game that has burned so brightly that it has taken Disney by surprise!

The initial stock has seemingly vanished after the launch in September, making it challenging for enthusiasts to secure their coveted cards. Even with the game hitting mass retail outlets such as Best Buy and ShopDisney, the scarcity issue doesn’t seem poised for an immediate resolution.

In a tweet, Ravensburger expressed its commitment to ensuring that fans can purchase and savor the Disney Lorcana TCG product at the suggested retail price. The company emphasized its dedication to maintaining availability and quality to sustain a thriving market for both collectors and players. To alleviate the shortage, additional booster products are expected to arrive in North American local game stores by October. Furthermore, Ravensburger announced plans to reprint “Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter,” with availability slated for Q1 2024 in North America and Europe. That doesn’t seem to be satiating demand or rising prices. For Disney, it is a rare massive success in a year that has been mostly disappointing on a grand scale.

If you  look on Amazon or any merchant that is selling this, the prices are hugely inflated. My local comic book shop dealer, who sells this, has told me that his distributers are even charging him a higher price than the MSRP, up to 20%. An expansion was just released but has also sold out. Many merchants limit what the customers can buy so that they can spread what merchandise they can get is given to as many customers as possible. There are images of employees that work for larger retailers and distributers buying all of the product their store gets before it can be sold to any customers.

Alright #Lorcana players, I need your best counter decks to the "Pawp Patrol" hyper control Ruby/Sapphire deck! I'm ready to take them down and want to know y'alls brews that might beat it! Hit me up with your lists below! #DisneyLorcana pic.twitter.com/ErNQxWrjB3

— Friggin' Nerd Mike (@MikeBurkey) November 27, 2023

Ravensburger did a reprint of the initial release due to the high demand. Before this re-release the cards were going for large amounts of money on the auctioning sites (ie eBay, etc) The prices for these individual cards has dropped because of the re-release but there is still a high demand for the cards.

Because of how Ravensburger produced the cards the demand for certain individual cards is great. As a fast explanation the categorize their cards into 6 categories; Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra-Rare, Legendary, and Foil. Foil cards are reprints of the other cards only with a foil finish. So any of the other 5 categories can also be a foil card. But it is another type of rarity. Getting a Foil-Legendary card dramatically increases the value of that card because you are combining 2 categories of rarity. It is still hard to get merchandise despite the attempts of the publisher to meet the demand of the game.

The game IP uses the Cartoon versions of the various Disney movies From Snow White up to Frozen. I haven’t seen any Bambi or Dumbo cards personally but there are Winnie the Pooh cards. I’m sure with more expansions more of these IPs will be incorporated into the game. I’m sure there are licensing restrictions that the publisher is under. What they bargained for and got permission to use. But I know that Disney is invested in this as it is being sold at Disney stores and in their parks (when they can get product). There are no Pixar or Disney-affiliated IPs (from what I’ve seen) included. But many of my friends who knew of the release of the game and predicted that it would be successful and were able to secure product at the GenCon pre-release are convinced that this game is here to stay and will only gain in popularity.

At the GenCon release there were people who bought tickets to attend the convention just to get this product. Some even spent all of their time at the Con in the line waiting to buy. It was similar to what happened when the Phantom Menace was released, with people camping out for several days around the theater in order to buy tickets.

I know (again) this is a small niche and is probably just a drop in the bucket, financially, for Disney. But the interest and whether this will have staying power is something interesting. Right now I would guess the main audience are older males (primarily) buying the game, because of the scarcity. But the game is simple enough to learn that kids ~10 years old cold play and II think there is a definite argument that could be made that if the game does catch on with kids that it could rival Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh CCGs. The other side of this is that if the game does catch on with a younger audience it could revive interest in these older Disney IPs. Kids may want to watch the older Disney cartoons that they may not have been aware of. I don’t know.

Now the question becomes, can Disney turn this into a Pokemon rival… or will Lorcana be an opportunity missed in a year of much of the same?

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