Children's games, or "advanced" games? Which sell more?

I know that Yugioh, at the height of it's popularity, outsold Magic. It was certainly geared toward a younger crowd.

If you are looking at mass market retail chains such as Walmart or Target, it doesn't break down as easily between adult or kids games.

They don't really care about those designations as much as whether a product has some of marketability behind them, and more importantly, that they hit a certain pre-determined price point.

From my estimation in the past, they won't even bother looking at a game over $19.99, with the exception that they maybe will occasionally look at something they would consider to be on the geeky end up to $39.99. Which is a shame, particularly from the kids game section, because there are a bunch of great kids games that are out there from Europe made with nice big wood pieces but ,alas, are in the $40 price range due to the production values.

As far as which sells more, that's pretty tough to figure out, since on a game-by-game basis, it's all over the place.
I would assume that if Walmart can't sell "many thousands" of any particular game-type product, it won't be on the shelf very long, since they really are the masters of self throughput.

(That's not to say that the big box stores won't make an occasional reach at something beyond the standard Hasbro/Mattel line, as long as it hits their price point and marketing thresholds. I've seen Battlestar Galactica and the Knizia Lord of the Rings both at Target in the past.)

"Mass market" games seem to fall into two categories: kids games (generally older titles like Candyland or something with a license, like "The Dora the Explorer Memory game") and party games (Pictionary, etc.). IF you are doing a game in either of these categories, AND you license the design to a company that can get into WalMart and other mass market outlets, THEN you will sell a boatload of games. Keep in mind that the margins will be thin, but you'll sell a ton.

Any other type of game - Euro, Abstract, Ameritrash, CCG, anything - will sell less copies. They'll be more fun (to us gamers!), but won't sell as well. Despite that, it is so hard to break into the mass market for most companies that the niche/hobby market is probably a better bet anyway.

Mass market stores do stock titles from companies other than hasbro/mattel, however. Urban Myth and other party games from mid-tier publishers are regulars there. Mass market stores don't like to deal with companies with only one game though. They also want that magic price point, which is going to be hard to get unless you printed a boatload of games - in China.

I think Gamewright are totally rude.

I sent them a game they said would take eight odd weeks to review after four weeks I send email asking what they thought no reply
then another no reply
then third one they send a freakin newsletter reply
two weeks after that I still have not heard yes or no.
So now I sent it to TV co to see if they will make a game show
Thats BIG money hopefully if ever gets put into production and of course if that happens a board game will also be produced.

You can try looking at reviews or articles for board games for kids and advance games so that you can see other peoples comments and make a study on it. But I think it is more on advances games that sell out.