Company Profile - Exploding Kittens

The cat's whiskers

Toy World catches up with general manager International at Exploding Kittens, Joeri Hoste, as the games company continues to build on its ongoing success.

Business is purring along nicely for Exploding Kittens. Despite the cost-of-living crisis hitting many households, retailers and consumers have been keen to get on board with the company’s quirky party games.

Joeri Hoste says that while the games market is currently “quite challenged”, with NPD showing it down around 5%, 2022 has been a very positive year for Exploding Kittens, with the company delivering a credible 25% growth year on year for bricks and mortar sales. “We have been ramping up our product development calendar and the response from retailers has been encouraging,” he says.

Exploding Kittens has introduced new extensions for two of its biggest franchises; Zombie Kittens for Exploding Kittens and a Not Safe For Work (NSFW) edition of Poetry For Neanderthals. In addition, the company has launched two completely new games; Mantis, which launched in spring, and Hand-to-Hand Wombat, which hit UK shelves in early August. These new additions bring Exploding Kitten’s portfolio to 26 games in total, grouped within the key franchises.

Hand-to-Hand Wombat was launched as a Kickstarter campaign, and it achieved a massive 85,000 backers. As Joeri explains: “We came from Kickstarter, and while the majority of our business is now true retail, we still go back to the well once in a while to launch a campaign.” Hand-to-Hand Wombat is described as a game of teamwork, towers and troublemakers, combining social deduction and stacking bricks, where one team works together to build towers before the other team can secretly sabotage it. It features the wombat character from The Oatmeal’s comic, which was the most popular comic in 2021.

Joeri says he is encouraged by the fact that bricks and mortar retailers have come on board for Exploding Kittens’ games in a big way and tells us many national accounts now have a much broader listing than last year. As retailers invest in Exploding Kittens, the company is reciprocating with support by stepping up its marketing, an area where Joeri concedes there was room for improvement in previous years. “We have really ramped up our (mainly digital) advertising,” he explains. “To reward and support retailers that are investing in us, we’ve invested back in them and launched digital campaigns that drive traffic specifically to their stores and websites. That has had a hugely positive effect.”

The company has also increased its in-store visibility and, for the first time, one retailer has rolled out an FSDU with eight SKUs in over 100 locations, dedicated to the Exploding Kittens brand. “In the bricks and mortar segment, we will be in a much better place than we were in the last two years, so we are hoping that translates into increased sales,” says Joeri.

Despite NPD figures showing a slight decline in the Games category, Joeri believes that demand is very much still there, especially for the company’s new releases. Zombie Kittens, which was presented at this year’s London Toy Fair, is enjoying strong sales already, fuelling his belief that there will always be an appetite for a new game if it is executed well.

Best-sellers though are still Throw Throw Burrito and the original Exploding Kittens game, and plans are in place to deepen these ranges. Although there was no new launch for Throw Throw Burrito this year, Throw Throw Avocado, which launched last year, is really coming into its own and gaining broader traction. “We have development already underway for next year to expand on that franchise - and Poetry For Neanderthals is also getting much more traction,” adds Joeri.

Excitement is also mounting for Exploding Kittens’ first of a kind partnership with Netflix, which saw the launch of a Netflix-exclusive mobile Exploding Kittens game in May and will see the release of a new animated series building on the popular card game next year. Slated for 2023, the series will star Tom Ellis and Lucy Liu and follow the eternal conflict between Heaven and Hell, which reaches epic proportions when both God and the Devil are sent to Earth - in the bodies of chunky house cats.

Joeri says he is excited for the impact it will have on the Exploding Kittens brand. “This will be a great opportunity to broaden brand awareness and appeal to an even wider target audience,” he enthuses. “We hope we can expand this strategy to some of our other games and, as we look ahead with the animated series, we will also be looking at licensing opportunities to leverage the increase in brand awareness.” Although excited to see developments into other forms of entertainment, Joeri adds that it is important not to lose focus on the games themselves.

The company entered the Puzzles market last year and now has a range of 24 titles based on its characters and games. The team is exploring more channel specific solutions to appeal to every segment of the market, such as the Cat Burglar Edition of Exploding Kittens which it launched as a brick-and-mortar exclusive, as well as the Two-Player Edition with a £9.99 entry-level price point.

Looking ahead, Joeri says he is excited for the future of Exploding Kittens. Next year will see an ambitious slate of five new games in the party games category. “We’ve enjoyed systematic growth and now we’re looking to build even further on that success,” he concludes.