5 Reasons Why Skylanders Sold $500 Million

A small cross-section of my babe's Skylanders Collection.

5 Reasons Why Skylanders Sold $500 Million

…and why my partner loves it.

I’ve seen Skylanders in stores since they were released in October of 2011.  They’re hard to miss in all of the places that feature electronic gaming products – a TV displaying the colorful characters running about using their powers, with the signature Portal sitting right in front of you to try out.  Place a nearby toy on and BAM!  There it is on the screen, showing off its exciting and flashy moves for you.  It was just a pleasant distraction for me originally.  That is, until a recent trip with my boyfriend to the Big Island, where it became MUCH more than that.

I caved and “allowed” him to buy the original Skylander’s: Spyro’s Adventure, and I chipped in with the Giants set.  After that, the collecting took off.  Now, as I write, I’m surrounded by an army of the little guys, a majority of them on a custom built shelf.  Only one or two of their friends remain to be collected.  It’s quite overwhelming.  From my own personal experience, here are the five reasons I see that Skylanders has managed to earn such an enormous sum in sales.

5. Multiplayer Options

My boyfriend and I are always looking for multiplayer games we can share.  While I can understand the appeal of “massively multiplayer online” games, there’s something special about sharing personal space with your gaming partners.  Besides being close enough to trade personal praise and taunts, mutual collaboration and enjoying the experience together are tremendous benefits.  This is how we gaymers did it before games went online, and I’m glad to see the trend slowly returning.  Skylanders adds another layer, allowing us to bring our own figures when playing with friends.

4. In-Game Marketing

Skylanders has a way of enticing you to buy more figures that’s incorporated seamlessly into the gameplay.  Certain areas of the game are locked and can only be accessed by Skylanders of a particular element.  Since all Skylanders are different (with 8 elements all together), players without Skylanders of the proper element will jump to buy one, especially with the promise of money and collectibles hidden in these sealed regions.  Gems scattered throughout the worlds unlock powers for specific Skylanders.  When you find one, you’re treated with a preview of what they can do, leaving your mouth watering if you do not yet own the figure.

3. Addictive Gameplay

Anyone who’s played a game like Diablo or Gauntlet Legends knows how addictive a game like Skylanders can be.  While definitely smaller in scale and complexity for its younger target audience, Skyladers has the basic elements of a good action/adventure/RPG title.  Your characters gain experience and levels, you collect money from baddies and chests to purchase upgrades to your skills, you can eventually select a branch of your Skylander’s “skill tree” depending on your play style and preferences, discover and use equipment (i.e. hats), and even shoot for completion goals (e.g. find all treasure chests/presents, finish the stage under a certain time, etc).  All of these elements hold the attention of hardcore gamers like myself.  But for someone like my other half, who is a casual gamer, the game is easy enough to pick up and play without a steep learning curve.

2. Cool Characters

Even I have to admit, those Sklanders are just plain cool.  Spyro the Dragon is my personal favorite, but the entire collection of these original characters is fantastic.  They’re colorful, they’re humorous, and they’re super powered little beasties, right at your fingertips.  Some of them have pretty hilarious voice acting, too.  The real appeal lies in unleashing their powers, all without worry of draining an “MP” or “energy” pool.  Hex rains magical skulls from the sky, Lightning Rod summons a powerful column of lightning, Trigger Happy shoots bullets like crazy (laughing maniacally all the way), and Terrafin tunnels through the Earth, humming a silly tune as he goes.  The Skylanders are both endearing and flashy.  While they’re certainly no Dovahkiin, there’s a sense of power in overwhelming your foes with explosive fireballs ala Spyro.

1. Gotta Catch ‘em All!

Skylanders is similar to Pokemon.  You have a large roster of cool monsters to collect and adventure with.  The difference with Skylanders?  You have to buy them.  The money feels well spent – you get a whole new character to play, and you own the matching action figure to show off (or play with).  The original set for Spyro’s Adventure was already large with 32 to collect, Giants added more.  Then you have the Series 2 figures, which are buffed up versions of the original characters.  In addition, you’ve got the light cores (figures that light up when placed on the portal), store exclusives, and special editions (like the glow-in-the-dark Cynder or rare Chrome Spyro).  More are being developed as I write this.  My partner just picked up the adorable new Hot Dog.  Activision has got this right, and if they can keep the ball rolling, it’ll go on for a long time to come.

Our little Hot Dog.

With $500 million already in their pockets, Activision is still developing fresh content for us to eagerly consume.  In the future, I hope to see yet another expansion, but until then, us Skylanders fans will continue to fuel this exceedingly well-designed machine.