US board game market revenue

From 2010 to 2022, as the board game market grew, the North Atlantic right whale population declined, yielding a correlation of negative 0.97 that the board game industry is not responsible for and the right whales have not acknowledged. The data does not suggest that Settlers of Catan is threatening marine mammals, though a game in which players compete to control shipping lanes does feel uncomfortably on-theme. This is a coincidence. Probably.

The US board game market grew from roughly $1 billion in 2010 to over $3 billion by 2022, driven by the 'board game renaissance' — a surge in hobby gaming, crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter enabling independent designers, and pandemic-era demand for social entertainment. North Atlantic right whale numbers declined from an estimated 500 in 2010 to around 340 by 2022, primarily due to entanglement in lobster and crab fishing gear and vessel strikes. These trends are causally unrelated but share 13 years of opposing movement.

The board game revival and the right whale's decline are both real and important; they simply have nothing to say to each other. Data does not mourn the coincidence of its correlations.