Warhammer firm Games Workshop's £120m profit update hailed as 'astonishing'

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**beast_gts**

Warhammer firm Games Workshop's £120m profit update hailed as 'astonishing'

The incredibly successful company's products could seem strange to the uninitiated - but they have become a global phenomenon

Warhammer firm Games Workshop has revealed it brought in an estimated £120 million profit over the last six months, in an update that has been hailed as "astonishing" by analysts. The manufacturer of the phenomenally popular Warhammer 40,000 miniatures, which operates from its Lenton Lane business complex in Nottingham, has a worldwide reach and has made huge amounts of revenue and profit in recent years.

The company made a £200 million profit in its last financial year and has now announced that recent trading has once again exceeded expectations. In an update to investors, the major city employer said: "The group is pleased to announce that trading since the last update on September 18 is ahead of expectations.

"The board’s estimate of the results for the six months to December 1, at actual rates, is core revenue of not less than £260 million (2023/24: £235.6 million) and licensing revenue of not less than £30 million (2023/24: £13.0 million). The group’s profit before tax is estimated to be not less than £120 million (2023/24: £96.1 million)."

Games Workshop added that further details would be announced in the half-yearly report released on January 14. The firm, which is planning to expand its manufacturing in Nottingham to keep up with growing demand for its wargaming figures, had significantly boosted its revenue from licensing its designs and characters to partners.

Space Marine 2, a videogame set within Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 world, was released in September and was purchased by 4.5 million gamers in the month afterwards. Edison Group, an investment research firm, labelled the trading update "outstanding" and explained Games Workshop was expected to now make more profit than its analysts had previously predicted.

Russell Pointon, director of consumer at Edison Group, said the business had benefited from launching a new range of figures and from the very successful video game based on its products. "The core business continues to generate strong consistent revenue growth of not less than 10 per cent, as it benefitted from the launch of the fourth edition of Age of Sigmar," Mr Pointon explained.

"The real surprise comes from licensing revenue which has increased by an astonishing 150 per cent year-on-year to not less than £30m, way ahead of our prior FY25 (fiscal year 2025) estimates of £25m. The strong growth in licensing has a significant effect on profitability as it is a very profitable revenue stream.

A Warhammer hobbyist paints one of Games Workshop's models (Image: Vincent Cole/Manchester Evening News)
"The company’s growth rate is testimony to its ability to evolve its intellectual property and engage with its customers." Games Workshop submitted plans in August to knock down Nottingham City Council's old transport services depot off Willow Road ahead of the proposed construction of an extra figurine-making plant worth £9 million on the land.

More than 350 staff currently work at the site's three existing Willow Road factories to produce millions of the popular figures, with bosses hoping the planned fourth factory will be open by spring 2026. It has also asked Nottingham City Council for permission to set up a facility that will supply paint for the tens of millions of plastic parts manufactured at its three factories.

**Loopstah**

Who would have thought giving the customers and fans what they want would be successful.

**NoggintheNog**

I wonder if Rick Priestley, Andy Chambers et all get anything from all the licensing stuff.

The 40K licensing seems to be generating huge profits, and all of it is a result of their world building.

**Lathe Biosas**

Loopstah wrote:
Who would have thought giving the customers and fans what they want would be successful.

It took them long enough to figure that out.

**Chikout**

An interesting tidbit is that until 2018-2019 a post 40k year never beat a 40k year. This is on track to being the third time in a row for that to happen. It looks like AoS is doing ok.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

NoggintheNog wrote:
I wonder if Rick Priestley, Andy Chambers et all get anything from all the licensing stuff.

The 40K licensing seems to be generating huge profits, and all of it is a result of their world building.

Very unlikely, as they seem to have been salaried during the early days. So anything they created belonged to GW, not the individual.

**Lathe Biosas**

I wonder....

Since licensing is paying off, I wonder how long it will be until we see Warhammer 40k HeroClix?

**alextroy**

I don’t think GW would be willing to risk cannibalizing miniature sales by creating a license for 40K themed miniatures.

**beast_gts**

It used to be in their agreements that 3rd party games couldn't include models that were the same scale / could be used for their games - so things like Forbidden Stars had random scale stuff.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Also, recycling my comment from the other thread on this?

Female Custodes were meant to destroy GW’s profits, not join them!

And yeah, you read that in the right voice in your head!!

**Marshal Loss**

Time to raise prices again

Will be interesting to see where the company goes over the coming years

**Memnoch**

So basically Space Marine 2 made a fortune?

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Depends on the licensing agreement.

It’s worth noting however that whilst it no doubt added significantly? The increase hasn’t solely come from the licensing wing.

Though it’s more likely than not that Space Marine 2’s obvious and evidenced success will have helped GW shift more model kits, as there will be cross pollination. Enough to be the entire non-licensed increase? Seems unlikely to me, but we can’t say for certain, as we don’t have that information. And never will, because GW doesn’t break their annual report down by system, only by territory and sales channel.

**alextroy**

"The real surprise comes from licensing revenue which has increased by an astonishing 150 per cent year-on-year to not less than £30m, way ahead of our prior FY25 (fiscal year 2025) estimates of £25m. The strong growth in licensing has a significant effect on profitability as it is a very profitable revenue stream.]

Memnoch wrote:So basically Space Marine 2 made a fortune?

If you count an increase of licensing revenue from around £12m to £30m to be a fortune (assuming all that increase is Space Marine 2 revenue).

Personally, I think the outstanding thing was pre-tax profit of £120m on revenue of £290m.

**Overread**

Honestly for all we grumble about the rules its honestly great to see GW in such a strong position without having been torn apart by investors and mega-shareholders and the like.

It's a breath of fresh air that GW is giving customers more and more of what they/we want. Esp when you've firms like Hasbro going the other way and milking things to death or Tencent playing investor games with a vast chunk of the video game market - failing and causing a cascade of failures and disasters for firms.

Which isn't to say GW is dirt cheap or anything; they've never been cheap and they've got issues with rules and balance and many of us would like to see a longer than 3 year rules cycle and such. There are issues; but they are clearly not so dominant as to have crippled the fun

Automatically Appended Next Post:

alextroy wrote:
"The real surprise comes from licensing revenue which has increased by an astonishing 150 per cent year-on-year to not less than £30m, way ahead of our prior FY25 (fiscal year 2025) estimates of £25m. The strong growth in licensing has a significant effect on profitability as it is a very profitable revenue stream.]

Memnoch wrote:So basically Space Marine 2 made a fortune?
If you count an increase of licensing revenue from around £12m to £30m to be a fortune (assuming all that increase is Space Marine 2 revenue).

That £18Million difference is a very big number for a single firm to make for not having to have lifted a finger beyond monitoring the licence use. Plus I don't think any other firm in model making can even envision making a million let alone multiple millions off licencing deals like that. Or at least the only other one I can think of is Battletech and that's a bit more complicated in how that licencing and such pans out.

**Hellebore**

I think the timelines are being misinterpreted.

Virtually nothing released now actually affected this income.

Depending on the deal Space marine 2 would have paid for the licence when they started making it, they certainly wouldn't have spent millions on a game they had no authority to release. They might have had a percentage clause that meant any sales paid them when the sales began, but again that isn't going to line up with the time frames indicated.

Any profit they see for licencing in this particular report would have been licence purchases during that period. What it says is that companies are seeing the value of the IP and willingly purchasing it more, but due to previously successful products, because space marine 2 hadn't released when those licencing purchases happened.

**Pariah Press**

I am practically certain that GW receives a percentage of every Space Marine 2 sale. The usual arrangement is for licensees to pay a percentage to the licensor and to guarantee a certain minimum amount of money.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

We’ll of course likely never know the exact details, but yeah I’d be surprised if GW aren’t getting some percentage of each sale, in addition to whatever was paid for the rights initially.

**Inquisitor Gideon**

A little addition to this:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/01/games-workshop-promoted-ftse-100-quarterly-reshuffle?fbclid=IwY2xjawG5hBBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHV92xa82Rqqr8ZBVjvV5Rv6jG-FUUZL7t6G9dJ82nx5ucas-VYj6jz3_3Q_aem__NKKD-Ob2uHvapV2_9-ZCQ

**beast_gts**

That pricing explains why Games Workshop was nicknamed “heroin for middle-class nerds” in the Guardian five years ago.

**Lathe Biosas**

beast_gts wrote:
That pricing explains why Games Workshop was nicknamed “heroin for middle-class nerds” in the Guardian five years ago.

Heroin might be a cheaper addiction.

**Jaxmeister**

I love my plastic crack habit!

**Shrapnelsmile**

Lathe Biosas wrote:
I wonder....

Since licensing is paying off, I wonder how long it will be until we see Warhammer 40k HeroClix?

I just want a full range of D&D Heroclix. So much.

**Commitz**

alextroy wrote:
"The real surprise comes from licensing revenue which has increased by an astonishing 150 per cent year-on-year to not less than £30m, way ahead of our prior FY25 (fiscal year 2025) estimates of £25m. The strong growth in licensing has a significant effect on profitability as it is a very profitable revenue stream.]

Memnoch wrote:So basically Space Marine 2 made a fortune?
If you count an increase of licensing revenue from around £12m to £30m to be a fortune (assuming all that increase is Space Marine 2 revenue).

Personally, I think the outstanding thing was pre-tax profit of £120m on revenue of £290m.

Well it's nice to see in numbers how essential the premium pricing is for the survival of the company