It makes sense to just consider the category of tabletop games in terms of market analysis.

Saying those games are a small part of the overall games market is stating the obvious. Some people just wanna play tabletop games.

Clue, Chess, D&D, etc are tabletop games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabletop_game

You're looking at the wrong market. Games Workshop are not a "battlefield simulation" company. They're a miniature company or if you want to look at it more broadly, they're a company selling molded plastic.

The battlefield simulation is only a means to an end of convincing consumers to buy high margin plastic.

In that context Mattel is the kind of selling molded plastic.

To illustrate how crazy good Games Workshop are at what they do. Mattel has 10x the revenue of Games Workshop but both companies pull in the same net income.

They're both plastic companies at their core, but GW have margins that Mattel could only dream of.

Games workshop makes money from video games and books not just selling plastic.

Disney is a more direct comparison, but again not as favorable.