Novels came after the golden age for the most part, Dragonlance landed 2 years after the GA peak (UA and DL saved D&D). The massive sellers were 1E PHB, red box and the big sellers were a few of the adventures.
Pretty sure the Gygax novels hit the best seller list. And while I don't know how many of these were sold, I know they all sold very strong initially (which was before the drop-off of TSR): Boot Hill, Gamma World, Indiana Jones, Marvel Super Heroes, Top Secret, and Star Frontiers. So did the Endless Quest books. So did the first Dragon lance books, which were 1984. The D&D cartoon was 1983.
Theres numerous sources from ex TSE staffers, Mentzer, Gygax, Lisa Stevens, Stan!, Sharon Apllecine, who wrote the book on D&D history.
Almost none of which spoke about the thing you're trying to claim they spoke about - D&D book sales. It's not a legitimate argument for you to be making - naming those names as if they back up your claim, when you know darn well none of that had anything to do with claims about book sales.
They bloated to 300 staff and then ha a 30% downturn and were trying to sell D&D by 1985 and thats when Lorraine stepped in with her money.
Yes, I know my TSR history quite well, thanks. You're again talking about all sorts of stuff that doesn't support your point. We know TSR got big...we don't know what PHB 1e book sales or D&D game book sales were.
Most of the early RPGs and anything that was not D&D was also cut. Hell when TSR went under they were still having revenue of 40 million (just run badly), IIRC novels were bigger than the game line by then.
Right...the novels were bigger than the game by then, but you want to pretend all the numbers you've ever heard (which were vague and TSR general numbers to begin with) were all or almost all D&D game book sales. It's nonsense.
Personally I thik WoTC have probably sold more than a million PHB, but its not 100% clear and some people are getting carried away.
Nobody is getting carried away. You're being defensive because you've said a lot about relative sales in the past, made predictions about sales fall-off that didn't come true, and now people are calling you on it. And I understand why you'd be defensive, but you can't flip it on people claiming they're the ones "getting carried away". The most extremist rhetoric at this point, on this issue, is coming from you. You'll concede a point (like 1 million 5e PHB sales) and then a few weeks later will imply the opposite. You'll haul out a list of TSR names as if it supports your claims about D&D 1e game book sales knowing it doesn't. That's much more "getting carried away" with your position than anyone else is doing anymore on this topic.
Yes D&D is doing very well, I doubt its beating D&D at the height of the golden age (or ever will). These numbers were referenced in court filings for They Sue Regularly (TSR).
Yes, for TOTAL TSR SALES. Can you admit you don't have any idea what the actual D&D game book sales were? I can pull those old court docs if you like...you'll rapidly see they don't name D&D game book sales in them. You know what they do name? A huge list of products they sell, which includes a whole lot of things that were not D&D game books.
Every time a new edition lands in the internet age (3.0 onwards) there is always a cheer leading group that claims the latest edition is the best/greatest/biggest selling ever etc etc etc. In 6 years give or take 5E will likely end 6E will land and the cycle will begin again. The main point is people get carried away with it. This is my 5th or 6th edition cycle depending on if you count 3.5 (7th if you count Pathfinder).
Claiming in the past people have gotten carried away with claims about prior editions doesn't actually support your claim either. It's a rhetorical trick. Logically, an edition can in fact be the best selling, even if people previously wrongly claimed prior editions were the best selling. What fans claimed about prior editions doesn't actually support anything about this topic. I say again, this time it would appear you're the guy getting carried away...mostly because you made a series of predictions that were blown.
I totally know how you feel. I predicted 4e would be HUGE. I know how it feels to make a blown prediction on these sorts of things. It's what you do once you know you blew it that really matters. Right now, you're still heavily on the defensive. It seems every time someone brings up this issue you feel the need to jump in and defend the position that D&D isn't doing as well as people think it is (even though all they are doing is expressing their happiness). As if that is about you. Which of course then makes it about you.
