Skylanders: What Happened to the Once-Billion-Dollar Franchise?

What Killed Skylanders? The Story Behind Its Downfall

Skylanders wasn’t just a game—it was a cultural phenomenon. The idea of bringing toys to life with an RFID-powered "Portal of Power" was groundbreaking, and when the first game launched in 2011, it quickly became a billion-dollar franchise.

For years, Skylanders dominated the gaming industry, but by 2017, it was dead. What happened? How did one of Activision’s most successful franchises vanish so quickly?

Let’s dive into the rise and fall of Skylanders and what ultimately led to its downfall.

The Early Success of Skylanders

Skylanders was developed by Toys for Bob, a studio owned by Activision. When they pitched the Toys-to-Life concept in the late 2000s, Activision took a risk—and it paid off massively.

💰 Skylanders' Billion-Dollar Boom

📌 Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (2011) – The first game introduced physical toys that could be placed on the "Portal of Power" to enter the game.
📌 Skylanders Giants (2012) – Added larger, more powerful figures, increasing demand.
📌 Skylanders Swap Force (2013) – Allowed toys to swap parts, creating new combinations.
📌 Skylanders Trap Team (2014) – Introduced trappable villains that could be played as characters.

By 2015, the franchise had made over $3 billion, with more than 250 million figures sold worldwide.

Skylanders was a money-making machine, but cracks were already starting to show.

The Decline Begins: Too Much, Too Fast

The first major problem with Skylanders was oversaturation.

Activision released a new Skylanders game every year, and with each release came new figures—which meant players had to constantly buy new toys just to keep up.

⚠️ The Problems with Annual Releases

🚨 Skylanders SuperChargers (2015) introduced vehicles, but removed fan-favorite gameplay mechanics from previous games.
🚨 Skylanders Imaginators (2016) allowed players to create their own Skylanders, but it also introduced loot boxes, which felt like a cash grab.
🚨 Expensive toy requirements – To fully enjoy each new game, players needed to spend hundreds of dollars on figures.

At first, parents and collectors were willing to pay. But after five years of annual releases, player fatigue set in.

🆚 The Competition Heats Up

Skylanders wasn’t the only Toys-to-Life game anymore. Competitors like Disney Infinity, LEGO Dimensions, and Nintendo Amiibo flooded the market.

🔹 Disney Infinity (2013-2016) – Leveraged popular Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars characters, giving it a massive advantage.
🔹 LEGO Dimensions (2015-2017) – Combined iconic LEGO properties with an interactive game world.
🔹 Nintendo Amiibo (2014-Present) – Offered collectible figures that worked across multiple games, making them more versatile.

By 2016, the market was oversaturated, and consumers couldn’t keep up.

The Breaking Point: Skylanders Falls Apart

By the time Skylanders Imaginators launched in 2016, the franchise was in trouble.

📉 Sales dropped drastically, with only 66,000 units sold in the first month—a massive decline compared to earlier games.
💰 Production costs skyrocketed, as Activision had to keep creating new figures for each release.
🎮 Consumer burnout – Fans were tired of buying new toys every year just to keep playing the game.

Meanwhile, Disney Infinity was shut down in 2016, and LEGO Dimensions ended in 2017. The Toys-to-Life genre was collapsing—and Skylanders went down with it.

By 2018, Activision stopped mentioning Skylanders in its reports, signaling the end of the franchise.

What Killed Skylanders? The Final Verdict

So, why did Skylanders die? It wasn’t just one thing—it was a perfect storm of issues:

1️⃣ Oversaturation and Consumer Fatigue

📌 Annual releases with expensive figures made the series unsustainable.
📌 By 2016, players had spent hundreds (or thousands) of dollars—and they had enough.

2️⃣ Competition from Disney, LEGO, and Amiibo

📌 Disney Infinity and LEGO Dimensions stole Skylanders’ spotlight.
📌 Amiibo figures were cheaper and worked across multiple games.

3️⃣ Declining Innovation

📌 Each game introduced new gimmicks (traps, vehicles, loot boxes), but they weren’t enough to keep fans engaged.
📌 Features from previous games were removed, frustrating players.

4️⃣ The Collapse of the Toys-to-Life Genre

📌 Disney Infinity was canceled in 2016.
📌 LEGO Dimensions was canceled in 2017.
📌 Skylanders quietly disappeared in 2018.

In the end, Skylanders became too expensive, too repetitive, and too difficult for fans to keep up with.

What's Left of Skylanders?

While Skylanders is gone, Toys for Bob (the studio behind it) still exists.

📌 They worked on Spyro Reignited Trilogy (2018) and Crash Bandicoot 4 (2020).
📌 In 2024, after Microsoft acquired Activision, Toys for Bob went independent—leaving the future of Skylanders uncertain.

Meanwhile, Nintendo’s Amiibo remains the only surviving Toys-to-Life brand, proving that a less aggressive, collectible-focused approach works better.

Will Skylanders Ever Return?

A Skylanders remaster or reboot could work if:
✔️ It focused on digital content instead of physical figures.
✔️ It introduced new mechanics instead of just reusing old ones.
✔️ It avoided the pay-to-play model that frustrated fans.

But for now, Skylanders remains a relic of gaming history—a franchise that burned too bright, too fast.

For more deep dives into gaming history, keep reading Land of Geek Magazine!

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