Skylanders series mints $500 million

January 11, 2013 6:52AM PST

By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Activision's toy and game franchise generates half a billion dollars in the United States alone since 2011.

Activision's Skylanders toy and game franchise has generated $500 million in the United States alone since the series launched in 2011, Activision announced today, citing data from NPD Group. According to Activision, the Skylanders series reached the sales milestone faster than any other children's game property and even outsold action figure lines like Beyblades, WWE, and Stars Wars.

 

Skylanders Giants, the sequel to 2011'sSkylanders Spyro's Adventure, generated more than $195 million in 2012 US sales. This figure represents sales of accessory packs, action figures, and the games themselves. In addition, Activision claimed Skylanders Giants revenue surpassed the US box office sales for Disney's Wreck-It Ralph and DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians.

Toys 'R Us executive vice president and chief merchandising officer Richard Berry had high praise to give for the Skylanders series, saying in a statement that it is "one of the most innovative and exciting toy properties to hit the market."

The Skylanders series is developed by Activision subsidiary Toys For Bob, which is based in Novato, California. For more on the franchise, check out GameSpot's review of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure and previous coverage of Skylanders Giants.

i remember activision once said they made the skylanders IP to sell toys off of it right? thats whats making them so much money right?

Probably 95% of that came from Toys. But congratulations indeed.

Can you imagine if pokemon took a similar approach. 

These things sell like hot cakes. Last year hoarders bought up a lot of the stock and were charging 100 dollars per toy for the last week of christmas on eBay and craigslist and they sold at that price.

This year Activision clued in and made enough toys but there were a few rare ones which went for up to 300 bucks on eBay.

im surprised they didnt. i mean damn the games didnt sell that great in USA but look at all the money they made! you gotta give it to activision though, they really did have an awesome strategy thats paying off incredibally. 

If pokemon did it then it might be huge for nintendo, it might actually make them more money then most of there game sales. but coming to think about it didnt pokemon already do this? i remember the card game being huge like 10 years back (atleast where i lived)

not with the main series.  This actually just falls into my previous conversation with you even more.  Good pokemon games sell extremely well where as knockoffs fall to mediocre or bad numbers.  

Wow I had no idea these things were so popular.

Huge for Nintendo? They don't have the pokemon license. I think?

I tried this game and, really, it's pretty lousy and incredibly basic.

BUT.

I watched a pair of my nephews playing this (one 6 the other 8) and you quickly realize just how amazing an idea this was, even if the game is pretty much completely unappealing to anyone past the age of 10.

If nothing else, I'm happy that Toys for Bob has a monster hit, so maybe now Activision will let them do another Star Control.*

*Haha, yeah right.