[Fomite]

From someone who has been part of the hobby for a long time, I think a couple of reasons:

1) Total Warhammer, Space Marine, and an otherwise highly successful video game licensing program.

2) Being well positioned to ride the overall rise of nerdier hobbies being acceptable

3) A marked shift in the company towards being more open and...friendly? It's hard to overstate how much the "old GW" sort of viewed its customers with a vibe that sometimes came close to hostility. There's much better engagement now, and a business built on something other than "A mom will buy this for their 12 year old, and will lose them when they discover girls."

[lambdaone]

I think the image of 12 year old boys as GW's customer base is probably outdated. I know a woman who is _massively_ into Warhammer, and spends a lot of money and time on it. An N=1 anecdote is not data, but it would certainly be interesting to look in more detail at GW's demographic.