The Disney Infinity: Star Wars toy-based game set has managed to finally beat Activision's Skylanders series in the same category. For a long while now, Activision's toy-based game series was the top of the crop, but not anymore.
IGN picked up the story from Fortune, where it was revealed that Disney Infinity for the first time since it's been on the market has outsold Skylanders with both software and physical hardware. The estimated revenue generated for Disney Infinity's line of Star Wars figures has topped out at around $200 million after launching alongside Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. Activision's Skylanders and Warner Bros. Entertainment's Lego Dimensions have generated an estimated $150 million in sales within the same period.
All three properties are hot items right now and have been selling like crazy since Activision first started with the Skylander series several years ago. Back in the fall of 2012 the series had generated $500 million in the U.S., alone. Shortly thereafter, Activision had estimated that it could turn into another $1 billion franchise like Call of Duty. It did manage to generate $1 billion in both software and hardware sales over the course of the that year, beating out Star Wars and Legos at the time.
Shortly thereafter Disney had introduced the Disney Infinity line and managed to move 3 million starter packs shortly after release. However, it wasn't until the spring of 2015 that Disney Interactive infused Disney Infinity with Star Wars themed toys, including characters from the Clone Wars and the era of the Galactic Empire.
The introduction of the toys was all part of a very lucrative and elaborate roadmap that Disney laid out leading up to an extremely aggressive and expensive $350 million marketing campaign throughout 2015 for the launch of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens.
The Fortune article notes that the smart marketing, consistent flow of toys and merchandise and all of the licensed property for Star Wars easily helped turn that $350 million expense into an asset that helped push the new movie over the $1.1 billion mark right out of the gate.
And as evidenced with the sales of the toy line, Disney Infinity is about ready to surpass Disney's own $350 million marketing budget just by selling toys and games over the course of the holiday season and into the early first quarter of 2016.
Keep in mind that the recordings of the Disney Infinity sales for their Star Wars line started as of December 17th, so that's only half a month's worth of sales that generated $200 million for Disney right out of the gate. If Skylanders' quarterly sales was anything to go by, Disney could be looking at half a billion at the very least for Disney Infinity: Star Wars for the entire quarter leading into March.
No matter how you cut the custard, Disney Infinity is now a legitimate powerhouse to rival (and in this case, surpass) the sales of Activision's lucrative Skylanders brand.
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