Amazon Sales Rankings - amazing data!

MerricB · Oct 28, 2008

The following data is taken from Amazon.com on Oct 28, 2008. It probably doesn't mean that much. I was having fun collecting it.

#1,085: Adventurer's Vault
#1,449: D&D 4E Gift Set
#2,734: 4E Player's Handbook
#2,863: Forgotten Realms Player's Guide
#4,949: 4E DM's Screen
#5,507: 3.5E Player's Handbook
#6,954: Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
#9,337: 3.5E Dungeon Master's Guide
#12,849: 4E Dungeon Master's Guide
#15,558: H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth
#17,234: H3 Pyramid of Shadows
#19,494: 4E Monster Manual
#23,004: Scepter Tower of Spellgard
#24,656: 3.5E Monster Manual
#25,771: H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
#30,914: 4E D&D Starter Set
#445,483: The Sunless Citadel (3e adventure)
#448,647: Pathfinder #1: Burnt Offerings
#561,780: Pathfinder #14: Children of the Void
#747,380: Pathfinder #13: Shadow in the Sky
#948,303: DL1 Dragons of Despair (1e adventure from 1984)
#1,025,107: WG7 Castle Greyhawk (terrible 1e adventure from 1988)
#1,652,435: Pathfinder #15: The Armageddon Echo

Cheers!

Wisdom Penalty · Oct 28, 2008

Why is that 'amazing data', Sir Merric? Or were you being humorous?

I guess one part that seems very "off" to me is that the latest supplement (AV) is out-selling the core rules. Makes me scratch my head as to how that can be.

If 4e is, as those in the know state, a smashing sales success...then that means the Adventurers Vault is second only to the Bible in terms of literature sold.

Also, I think PF is so low because most folks who play it purchase directly from Paizo, though the relative scale of sales may be accurate.

WP

Allister · Oct 28, 2008

Wisdom Penalty said:
Why is that 'amazing data', Sir Merric? Or were you being humorous?

I guess one part that seems very "off" to me is that the latest supplement (AV) is out-selling the core rules. Makes me scratch my head as to how that can be.

If 4e is, as those in the know state, a smashing sales success...then that means the Adventurers Vault is second only to the Bible in terms of literature sold.

Also, I think PF is so low because most folks who play it purchase directly from Paizo, though the relative scale of sales may be accurate.

WP

AV is so high because it it a "new" product.

I fully expect by the end of the year for AV to be lower than the 4e core set.

Wisdom Penalty · Oct 28, 2008

Allister said:
AV is so high because it it a "new" product.

I fully expect by the end of the year for AV to be lower than the 4e core set.

Ahh...so there's a timer, of sorts, to that data? It's not kept from the first unit sold until present? That would make sense.

Though it also makes me wonder how Castle Greyhawk shows up. I bet Merric only searched for that module because of his deep-seated hatred of it.

WP

MerricB · Oct 28, 2008

Wisdom Penalty said:
Why is that 'amazing data', Sir Merric? Or were you being humorous?

No, I was being humourous, which far more stylish!

I particularly like how WG7 is outselling Pathfinder #15... of course, PF#15 probably isn't actually out in stores yet. Still, it's the sort of stats just designed to amuse Erik Mona.

I've a sneaking suspicion sales of the Gift Set are eating into individual DMG and MM sales.

Cheers!

MerricB · Oct 28, 2008

Wisdom Penalty said:
Though it also makes me wonder how Castle Greyhawk shows up. I bet Merric only searched for that module because of his deep-seated hatred of it.

More because of Erik's deep-seated hatred of it. I'm not fond of it, (although I do like the horizontal, jet-propelled piercers!), but Erik really, really doesn't like it.

Also, the incongruity of it having a ranking at all is amusing.

Cheers!

Allister · Oct 28, 2008

Wisdom Penalty said:
Ahh...so there's a timer, of sorts, to that data? It's not kept from the first unit sold until present? That would make sense.

Though it also makes me wonder how Castle Greyhawk shows up. I bet Merric only searched for that module because of his deep-seated hatred of it.

WP

Not exactly.

Basically, the Amazon sales ranking IIRC jut shows the demans for a product on a weekly basis. As a new product, demand for AV will be higher but as more people have it, the lower its demans and thus ranking will go.

The core set are more like evergreen products in that they have a higher sales movement even after the inital release.

Glyfair · Oct 28, 2008

MerricB said:
I particularly like how WG7 is outselling Pathfinder #15... of course, PF#15 probably isn't actually out in stores yet.

Plus, sales at that level are certainly equivalent (in fact, I would be surprised if there is any really meaningful data beyond 100,000).

Allister said:
The core set are more like evergreen products in that they have a higher sales movement even after the inital release.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Adventurer's Vault becomes one of those evergreen products as well (although a lesser evergreen product). The book is well thought of, in general (although hardly flawless) and magic item books tend to do wll. I guess we won't know until some time after AV2 comes out next year.

justanobody · Oct 28, 2008

Rankings as useless as "data". The popularity contest is interesting, but without sales figures like copies sold per month, then there is really no data to look at.

Oh well I came in here hoping that someone was selling Amazons, and was not the case. But who couldn't use a few more Amazon women in the world today?

Truename · Oct 28, 2008

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I happen to be an author (not D&D related) and I've made a point of learning how Amazon salesrank works.

The salesrank numbers are an instant "snapshot" of the last hour's worth of sales--there's no historical data there at all*. So those numbers mean that Adventurer's Vault was selling better than the core books during the one hour prior to Merric capturing the numbers That makes sense because AV is a new book, and new books sell more.

It's impossible to say what salesrank numbers mean in terms of real sales, but as a point of comparison my book's salesrank is pretty consistently around 12,000, sometimes peaking at 7,000 and sometimes dropping to 50,000. Bookscan data says I sell about 50 books a week, which is probably 70 books a week overall.

Note however that books with higher ranking sell a LOT more--it's not a linear correlation.

*There is a tiny bit of history in the list because tied books stay in the same relative position. As sales are made and books go up in rank, a book making no sales will drift down the list. A book at rank 10,000 has probably made a sale in the last few hours and books below 50,000 probably haven't sold a copy in the last day... as a rough guess. Books with 6-digit salesranks aren't selling well; books with 7-digit salesranks are either selling very badly or haven't been released yet.
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