Games Workshop Surpasses Mattel in Market Cap, Cementing Warhammer's Rise

Games Workshop, the Nottingham-based maker of Warhammer 40,000, overtook Mattel in market capitalisation, with the miniatures giant reaching roughly £5.88 billion compared to Mattel's £4.28 billion. The company behind Barbie, Transformers, and Masters of the Universe has lost nearly a third of its value over the past year; Games Workshop's has climbed by more than 22 percent over the same period.

The numbers behind the milestone are staggering for a company that once occupied a single niche in the hobby market. For the fiscal year ending June 2025, Games Workshop posted revenue of £617.5 million, up from £525.7 million the prior year, while pre-tax profit reached £262.8 million, a 29.5 percent jump. Licensing revenue surged to £52.5 million from £31 million, driven in large part by the Amazon deal to adapt the Warhammer 40,000 universe for film and television.

The release of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was a significant accelerant. The action title sold over 7 million copies, pulling an enormous audience into the IP and converting many of them into hobbyists who found their way to a paint pot and a box of plastic Marines. That knock-on effect is visible in Games Workshop's independent retail network, which now spans 8,100 stockists globally, up by 900 in a single year. The company's own retail footprint reached 570 stores worldwide after opening a net 22 locations.

For context, Games Workshop's stock was valued at just £137 million when it first listed in August 1996. Crossing the £5 billion mark and leaving a century-old toy conglomerate in the rearview mirror would have seemed like absolute heresy to anyone pricing shares back then.

The Amazon adaptation remains the most closely watched catalyst ahead. Licensing revenue is not expected to repeat its record-breaking pace next year, and Games Workshop has been characteristically tight-lipped about production timelines. But with the IP's cultural footprint now large enough to outweigh the maker of the world's most famous doll on the London Stock Exchange, the long argument that Warhammer was a niche product has officially collapsed.