The Games Workshop price increase for 2026 is here. See how Warhammer 40k, AoS, Heresy, and Old World kits are changing and what it means for your wallet.
If you’ve been in the Warhammer hobby for more than five minutes, you already know the drill. Every year, hobbyists start side-eyeing Games Workshop prices, watching for the next bump, and wondering whether this is finally the year GW blinks.
Spoiler alert: that doesn’t really happen.
Looking at the current market, the signs that a 2026 Warhammer price increase was on the way were not exactly subtle. Between retailer overstocks, 11th Edition hitting shelves soon, bundle box fatigue, supply issues, soft consumer spending, and more competition on the horizon, this year feels a little different overall.
Let’s break it all down and talk about what it means for your next army purchase, why it’s happening, and how you can stay ahead of the new GW price increase that hits on September 21st, 2026.
What Warhammer Price Increases Will Hit in 2026?
Updated on August 24th, 2026, by Rob Baer with new 2026 price increases
A lot of players expected the usual schedule. Historically, a Games Workshop price increase often gets announced around February and kicks in around March. That timing has happened often enough that many hobbyists practically mark it on the calendar.
But just because we haven’t seen the standard early-year move does not mean prices are safe.
GW has held off increases before, including into summer and even further into the year. Last year, tariff pressures were part of the justification, and increases took effect later than many expected (not until October). So, if you are waiting around thinking, “Well, it is March already, maybe we dodged it,” that feels a little optimistic.
Unfortunately, Games Workshop announced an increase for 2026, saying:
“From 21st September, some Warhammer products will change in price.
The full list of changes is available here from the Resources section of this site (Resources – Guidance Docs – Order Forms), the notice period means orders can be processed before the change becomes effective until the end of day Thursday 17th September.
Thank you for your continued support.”
Games Workshop’s 2026 Price Increase For Warhammer
Now that we have confirmation of a 2026 price increase, it looks to be about 4% overall, according to the US, UK, and German price change spreadsheets.
Headline Numbers (For US Stores & Customers)
1,625 items, all increases; nothing decreased.
Overall shape
- Average increase: 3.87%, with a median of 3.85% and a sales-weighted average of 3.84% across all list prices. So this isn’t a handful of kits getting hammered while everything else stays put. The increase is spread pretty evenly across the whole file.
- Average dollar increase: $2.57, with a $2.00 median. The smallest move is +$0.50 (+1.04%), while the biggest is +$12.50 (+5.81%).
- Distribution: 802 items (49%) land in the 3–4% range, another 498 (31%) fall between 4–5%, 207 (13%) come in at 3% or less, and only 118 items (7%) climb by more than 5%.
- Small movers: 639 items increase by less than $2.00, while 204 items pick up $5.00 or more.
- Trade pricing: trade prices move right along with retail and stay at 55% of retail before and after the increase, so the retailer margin percentage doesn’t change.
By game line
- Warhammer 40,000: 478 items, averaging +3.73% (+3.82% weighted). It’s the biggest chunk of the file and lands almost dead-on the overall average.
- Paints, brushes and hobby supplies: 359 items at a +4.34% average, the highest average increase of any category.
- Age of Sigmar: 302 items, averaging +3.74% (+3.76% weighted).
- The Old World: 107 items, averaging +3.90%.
- Horus Heresy: 106 items, averaging +3.78%.
- Necromunda: 65 items, averaging +3.53%.
- Legions Imperialis: 61 items, averaging +3.62%.
- Middle-earth SBG: 47 items, averaging +3.52%.
- Kill Team: 41 items, averaging +3.70%.
- Blood Bowl: 34 items at +4.40% on average, making it the second-highest category.
- Warhammer Underworlds: 23 items at +3.16% on average, the lightest increase of any game line in the file.
Boxed sets and entry points
- Combat Patrols: all 23 move from $170.00 to $177.00, a flat +$7.00 (+4.12%) across every faction.
- Spearheads: 26 go from $150.00 to $156.00, up $6.00 (+4.00%). Spearhead: Sons of Behemat starts higher and moves from $170.00 to $177.00, up $7.00 (+4.12%).
- Battleforces: $255.00 to $265.00, up $10.00 (+3.92%) for Chaos Space Marines Warband, Astra Militarum Platoon, Tyranid Swarm and Necron Host.
- Warhammer 40,000 Starter Set: $250.00 to $255.00, just +$5.00 (+2.00%), which makes it one of the softer increases among the expensive boxes.
- AoS Spearhead Starter Set and Spearhead: City of Ash: $220.00 to $230.00, up $10.00 (+4.55%).
- Kill Team Starter Set and Age of Sigmar Starter Set: $114.00 to $118.00, up $4.00 (+3.51%).
- The Old World Core Set: $240.00 to $250.00, up $10.00 (+4.17%).
- Adeptus Titanicus Starter Set: $190.00 to $200.00, up $10.00 (+5.26%).
- Codexes and Battletomes: all 41 books move from $60.00 to $62.00, up $2.00 (+3.33%).
Popular Space Marine kits
- Primaris Impulsor: $89.00 to $94.00, up $5.00 (+5.62%), the biggest percentage hit among the mainstream Marine kits listed here.
- Heavy Intercessors: $65.00 to $68.50, up $3.50 (+5.38%). Standard Intercessors and Assault Intercessors both move from $65.00 to $67.50, up $2.50 (+3.85%).
- Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs: $60.00 to $62.00, up $2.00 (+3.33%).
- Brutalis Dreadnought: $85.00 to $89.00, up $4.00 (+4.71%).
- Redemptor Dreadnought: $82.00 to $85.00, up $3.00 (+3.66%).
- Ballistus Dreadnought: $73.50 to $76.00, up $2.50 (+3.40%).
- Repulsor: $96.00 to $100.00, up $4.00 (+4.17%).
- Repulsor Executioner and Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer: $115.00 to $120.00, up $5.00 (+4.35%).
- Faction Upgrades & Transfers sprues (Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Black Templars): $35.00 to $37.00, up $2.00 (+5.71%).
Centerpiece characters and big models
- Sons of Behemoth: King Brodd: $215.00 to $227.50, up $12.50 (+5.81%). That’s the largest dollar increase anywhere in the file.
- The $175 primarch tier: every one of these moves up $10.00 (+5.71%), including Magnus the Red, Mortarion, Angron, Fulgrim, Szarekh the Silent King, and Krondys.
- Astra Militarum Baneblade: $200.00 to $210.00, up $10.00 (+5.00%).
- Archaon and the T’au Stormsurge: $195.00 to $205.00, up $10.00 (+5.13%).
- Ghazghkull Thraka: $82.00 to $84.00, up only $2.00 (+2.44%), noticeably lighter than most of the other big-name models here.
- Legiones Astartes Spartan Assault Tank: $118.00 to $125.00, up $7.00 (+5.93%), the largest percentage increase on any miniature kit.
Paints and hobby supplies
Paints are listed as 6-packs in the file, so looking at the per-pot increase gives a much better idea of what actually changed.
- Base, Layer, Dry and Technical 6-packs: $27.30 to $28.60, up $1.30 (+4.76%). That works out to $4.55 to $4.77 per pot, or another $0.22 each. At 173 SKUs, this is also the single most common line item in the file.
- Contrast, Shade and Air 18ml 6-packs: $46.80 to $48.60, up $1.80 (+3.85%), which takes each pot from $7.80 to $8.10, another $0.30. This group includes 139 SKUs.
- Spray cans: $144.00 to $150.00, up $6.00 (+4.17%).
- Warhammer Water Pot 6-pack: $67.50 to $72.00, up $4.50 (+6.67%), tied for the biggest percentage increase anywhere in the file.
- Base Brush XL 3-pack: $33.75 to $36.00, up $2.25 (+6.67%), matching the Water Pot at the top.
- Large Drybrush 3-pack: $39.00 to $41.25, up $2.25 (+5.77%).
Specialist games
- Blood Bowl teams: 26 teams move from $55.50 to $58.00, up $2.50 (+4.50%). That’s a big part of why Blood Bowl ends up with one of the highest category averages.
- Necromunda gang boxes: 24 items go from $53.00 to $55.00, up $2.00 (+3.77%). The larger Necromunda kits move from $94.00 to $97.50, up $3.50 (+3.72%).
- Kill Team boxes: 15 items rise from $69.00 to $72.00, up $3.00 (+4.35%), while the Kill Team Core Book barely moves from $64.00 to $65.00, up $1.00 (+1.56%).
- Legions Imperialis Warlord Titans: $125.00 to $127.50, up $2.50 (+2.00%), one of the lighter increases among the premium kits.
Smallest increases worth flagging
- Gloomspite Gitz Moonclan Stabbas: $48.00 to $48.50, up just $0.50 (+1.04%), the smallest percentage increase in the entire file.
- The $64 tier: moves to $65.00, up $1.00 (+1.56%), covering Sisters Novitiate Squad, Leagues of Votann Kapricus, Wood Elf Glade Riders, and Stormcast Reclusians.
- AoS army sets at $250.00 to $255.00, up $5.00 (+2.00%): Sylvaneth Strongroot Grove, Lumineth Iliathan Warhost, Ossiarch Null Myriad Phalanx, Daughters of Khaine Scathborn Coven, Tzeentch Warpflame Cavalcade.
- Horus Heresy heavy armor at $125.00 to $127.50, up $2.50 (+2.00%): Typhon Heavy Siege Tank and Cerberus Heavy Tank.
Across the whole file, most prices are moving somewhere between 3% and 5%. The nastier dollar increases show up mainly on $175-plus centerpiece models and big army boxes, while paints and hobby supplies take the highest average percentage increase of any category.
The Summer 2026 Warning Signs Were Already There
There are a few pretty obvious trends heading into summer, and none of them scream “great news for your wallet.”
Retailers Are Sitting on Too Much Stock
One of the biggest red flags is how saturated retailers seem to be with inventory from big box bundles. GW pushed a lot of larger bundle-style releases, while individual kits have not felt nearly as plentiful. That creates a weird bottleneck.
Stores wind up with stacks of expensive boxes that move more slowly, while hobbyists hold off on spending because many are clearly saving cash for Warhammer 40k 11th Edition. That is not exactly a healthy sign in a soft market.
From a hobbyist perspective, it feels like GW loaded the shelf with premium ticket items and expected everyone to just keep swiping the card like nothing changed.
That strategy gets a lot shakier when players are already feeling squeezed.
The Paywall Problem Is Getting Worse
Another issue hobbyists have noticed is the creeping pay-to-play feel in Warhammer. New releases, especially on the Xenos side, have too often shown up behind premium bundle walls first. And Xenos need new models more than basically anyone.
That means if you want the newest thing right away, you’re not just buying a unit. You’re buying the whole expensive package.
For longtime players, that’s frustrating. For newer players, it’s worse (but partially better). It turns the hobby into a higher-stakes buy-in right at the moment when GW should probably be doing the opposite. The only real benefit is you save money on the bundle deals, but that’s only if you want everything inside. Sometimes you just want a single unit and not a whole month’s worth of build time.
Supply Issues Are Not Helping
The hobby has also seen more supply headaches than anyone wants to deal with.
The Drukhari battalion box getting pulled before launch because it was missing sprues is the kind of thing that does not exactly inspire confidence. It’s a bad look for customers, bad for stores, and bad for momentum.
That matters because supply issues do more than annoy people. They make value feel even worse. If kits are expensive, hard to find, and occasionally arrive with production problems, then the entire buying experience starts to feel a lot less premium.
And that is a problem when premium pricing is the whole business model.
Warhammer Value Feels Worse Than the Sticker Price Alone
This is where a lot of the frustration really lives.
It’s not just that kits cost more. It is that a lot of armies feel like they give you less on the tabletop for every dollar spent. Plenty of kits land in that rough zone where you’re paying full hobby prices for something that only nets around 85 to 100 points in 40k.
That adds up fast.
Building an army has always cost money, sure. Nobody is pretending Warhammer was ever the budget option. But there is a big difference between “premium hobby” and “why did this one box barely move my list forward?”
When players start doing the mental math and realizing they need multiple pricey kits just to get functional army points on the table, the value conversation gets ugly in a hurry.
That’s one reason people are watching for a Warhammer price increase in 2026 with so much anxiety. Many players already feel like the increase happened, even if the sticker on some boxes has not officially changed yet.
Have There Already Been Stealth Price Increases?
Honestly, kind of yes.
Even without a giant headline announcement, there have already been signs that GW is nudging the ceiling upward. Battleforces have crept higher (up to $255), and some new kits have landed at price points that feel noticeably less forgiving than comparable releases from the recent past.
That is why a lot of hobbyists talk about stealth Games Workshop price increases. The company does not always need one giant sweeping announcement to change what players are paying. Sometimes it happens through release strategy, premium bundle pricing, and individual kit costs that just happen to keep drifting north.
New Competition Is Showing Up, But It’s a Soft Market
For years, GW has operated with a pretty comfortable amount of market gravity. Warhammer is the giant in the room, and even when other games pop up, few have the brand recognition or retail presence to really push back.
2026 is looking like another fairly easy year for the giant. Some games are coming out, but nothing that we expect to break the market.
Names like Gundam Assemble and StarCraft miniatures gaming products are entering the broader hobby conversation, and there is at least some fresh pressure building. Even if they don’t directly replace Warhammer, they give hobbyists more places to spend their money.
And in a soft market, that matters. At least there are some new games launching alongside 11th Edition 40k.
What To Do Before Any Price Increase Hits
This is where being practical matters more than being mad.
Prioritize the kits you actually need
If you’ve been planning an army expansion and you know what’s missing, grab those essentials first. Don’t panic-buy random boxes just because the internet starts yelling about increases.
Watch for local retailer deals
Independent stores may still have older stock at current prices. That can matter a lot if GW adjusts prices later in the year.
Be careful with premium bundles
Some of these look flashy but aren’t always the best value for your army plan. If a release box is padded with units you don’t want, it’s not saving you money.
Focus on points-efficient purchases
If you’re trying to build an army on a budget, it’s worth looking at which kits actually move your list forward rather than just buying whatever is new.
Expect a late move, not a canceled one
Just because the usual February or March window passed doesn’t mean the threat is gone. A fall increase is still very much in play.
Final Thoughts on 2026 Warhammer Price Increases
Right now, the biggest mistake hobbyists can make is assuming silence means safety.
So the price increases are here regardless of retailers being heavy on stock, and players are watching their wallets. New models have increasingly been tucked behind paywall-style releases, and supply issues have not helped. Plus, army value still feels rough in plenty of places.
Should the company have held the line in a softer market with new competition knocking around? To us, that seems the smarter play, optics-wise.
But regardless of what Wall Street or the FTSE thinks about Games Workshop’s financials this year, hobby insiders like us know their numbers point to a real stumble that bears watching well into 2027.
See the 2026 Price Increases Here
It’s very interesting this article came out just as I came back to the hobby after a couple of years and immediately noticed, especially with people shifting their pile of shame and projects, how repurchasing something I had sold was definitely more expensive. Things in general feel more expensive to keep up with standard sale prices.