Disney Lorcana launched at Gen Con in August 2023 with two-hour lines and sold-out shelves within hours. Ravensburger had underestimated demand badly enough that the first set, The First Chapter, was nearly impossible to find at retail for months. Scalpers moved product at double and triple the manufacturer’s suggested price. Local game stores couldn’t stock enough to run organized play events. The game was everywhere and nowhere simultaneously.
By early 2025, Lorcana had sold over one billion cards. The launch was the most successful product debut in Ravensburger’s history. The First Chapter booster box topped TCGPlayer’s sealed product sales chart for December 2023 by dollar volume. Lorcana hit number three overall in TCG sales in its debut year, an extraordinary achievement for a brand-new game entering a market dominated by decades-old franchises. Then the speculators left.
