On Tuesday, Games Workshop released its half-year financial report for the six months terminating in November 2025. The firm once again showed healthy growth, with pre-tax profits from sales of Warhammer 40k and other wargames almost $19 (£14) million higher than they were in the equivalent period of the previous year. CEO Kevin Rountree notes that during those six months, additional costs of around $8 (£6) million were reported "as a direct consequence of US tariff changes", but this has been "more than offset by efficiencies, price rises of c. 3.5% on our miniatures and books, more stable commodity prices and lower stock write offs".
GW's report states that new US tariffs depressed its gross profit margin - the percentage of the cash that comes through its tills that's actual profit after paying the costs incurred making goods and getting them to the point of sale - by 1.8% in the six months leading up to the end of November 2025. This was the largest, and pretty much only, drag on the profitability of the firm's core business making Warhammer and Warhammer 40k.
Rountree notes in the 2025-26 half-year report that "the additional cost of new tariffs has been mitigated by manufacturing and warehousing cost efficiencies achieved on higher sales volumes", a "reduction in the charge to inventory provision" (i.e. less unsaleable stock written off at a loss), plus reliable prices on transport and materials - and, of course, the most recent price rise.
But it's not possible to say that the price of Warhammer 40k went up just because of tariffs on US imports, since we can't know whether or not Games Workshop would have implemented the price hike if tariffs weren't in place. The firm's gross profit margin at the end of November 2025 stood at 69.4%, which is the same as it was at the end of November 2023 - but we noted when we reported on it that this was a historic high.
Games Workshop has raised prices for most of its core products at least once a year for the last several years. In March 7 2022 this was a 5% increase on core plastic minis, 10% on books, scenery, and resin miniatures, and 20% on "outliers", though price rises didn't affect all territories. March 6 2023 saw a 6% price rise for plastic and resin model kits, paint brushes, and spray paints, which GW said was because "Stuff costs more to make and more to move". There was the same justification for a price increase on June 10 2024, with the average price increase between 3% and 5% for many products and between 8% and 14% in Sweden and Norway.
The price increase mentioned in the most recent half-year financial report came into effect in October 2025. No explanation for the price rise was given at the time.
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