License Global — a magazine dedicated to the riveting, relatable, and ribald practice of talking about brand licenses — has just released its Global License Report for 2022. And boy, is it full of numbers. Reporting over $260 billion revenue from licenses worldwide (enough to give every single human being on earth ~$32) and 40 brands who made $1 billion, it sure is enough to make any human being who struggles to make rent each month just… so happy for these multinational mega corporations. But for our intents and purposes, we focus on The Pokémon Company, which landed a #5 spot with $8.5 billion in licensing revenue. So. Um. Good job? I guess?
TPC rose three spots from its 2021 position, where it was #8 with $5.1 billion, clearly soooooooo little money in comparison. The over $3 bil increase is attributed by License Global to the franchise’s 25th anniversary celebrations, causing a merch boom for the company. Makes sense. The only brands to supercede The Pokémon Company are Disney (only a couple billion dollars away from owning our souls), Dotdash Meredith (lifestyle brand publisher behind People magazine and others), Authentic Brands Group (a not-suspiciously named conglomerate mostly focused on fashion and celebrities), and WarnerMedia (y’know, the Warner Bros. guys and all their media properties). TPC surpassed the likes of Hasbro, NBC Universal, Mattel, and Paramount Global, and it did it all with just one franchise.
What does this mean for us? At the moment, little that’s concrete. It’s just something that the associated brands can tout to investors, not something consumers are going to be excited for. Theoretically. It’s only a matter of time until the sports teams we root for are replaced by stocks that we hope go up or down… Tesla fans are there already (if you’re reading this article, hi Mom). Anyway, Pokémon continues to make a lot of money, and very little short of total societal upheaval is going to change that anytime soon.
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
