I think Henry Cavill was a big part of why it grew in popularity. As Henry Cavill's career and profile grew, he did not shy away from putting his favorite nerdy interests in front of the media spotlight, which included Warhammer. That obviously caught the imagination of the internet crowd who ran away with it to create all sorts of memes with Cavill as the God Emperor, or "Behold the Omnissiah!" memes. That naturally sparked the interest of a lot of bystanders, and credit where credit's due, Warhammer lore is deeply enthralling.

Thanks, an interesting theory! I last played Warhammer (Fantasy) in the past century, we were a small circle of friends and I never heard the game mentioned by “non-nerds”, so it was quite surprising to me to find out some years ago that the Games Workshop Company has become one of Britain's “national champions”.

Total War: Warhammer came out in 2016 and was a massively popular game that kicked off a franchise.

If I recall right that was when GW started seemingly letting pretty much every studio take a crack at making games with their IP. There was a lot of trash but the sheer number of games put out meant they kept having 1-2 a year that were popular.

Yeah, they used to be immensely against anyone licensing their IP because they didn't want anyone who wasn't them making something with it, at one point going as far as to start their own record label. Now they seem to let anyone make video games with it.

They've been letting people make 40k video games for decades.

My guess would be that, like other 80s properties, many of the first generation of fans have now grown into adults with disposable incomes. I know thats the case with me and my circle.

They did really well with people returning to the hobby, especially during the pandemic.

They got me to some extent. I bought one of the largest models just the day before the first lockdown.

I never completed it, but since then I have played the smaller (Monopoly board size) game, Warcry.

The friends I discovered were playing the full-size games spend hundreds every week or two.

It's crazy how much money people end up spending on these kinds of things. A hundred here, a hundred there, before you know it you've spent tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands. Most probably don't even realize they're spending that much.

Adults with disposable incomes...who also have kids of warhammerable age.

I had the same thought. In high school around the turn of the millenium the warhammerers either got a few injections per year to their collections, as presents from relatives or from saved up allowances, unless they made a small business out of painting and selling figures.

Ten-fifteen years later they've started making big monies compared to a kid, and nostalgia is a powerful marketing tool.

Once the iPad generations take over I suspect Games Workshop will have it tougher.

From someone who has been part of the hobby for a long time, I think a couple of reasons:

1) Total Warhammer, Space Marine, and an otherwise highly successful video game licensing program.

2) Being well positioned to ride the overall rise of nerdier hobbies being acceptable

3) A marked shift in the company towards being more open and...friendly? It's hard to overstate how much the "old GW" sort of viewed its customers with a vibe that sometimes came close to hostility. There's much better engagement now, and a business built on something other than "A mom will buy this for their 12 year old, and will lose them when they discover girls."

I think the image of 12 year old boys as GW's customer base is probably outdated. I know a woman who is _massively_ into Warhammer, and spends a lot of money and time on it. An N=1 anecdote is not data, but it would certainly be interesting to look in more detail at GW's demographic.

They have successfully pivoted from a hobbit focused solely on board games, which requires travelling to someone's house with your figurines, going to the shop, etc.

to something broader, selling video games, science fiction novels (of mediocre quality), miniature painting alone, etc.

Many of their adult customers only buy and paint the miniatures to relax, without ever actually playing with them, for example. This has allowed them to significantly increase their prices.

They are also much less hostile towards fans. If my memory serves me correctly, in the 1990s they went after a fan who had tattooed one of their characters on himself...

Now they are hunting down 3D print models, but leaving fans relatively alone.

Space Marine 2 & Rouge Trader

Which was what got me stuck in this expensive hobby

Someone should make a parody video game called Rouge Trader.

Also Tacticus on mobile. 500k plus active players and some huuge whales. Quite fun even as f2p btw.