D&D 5E Amazon US book sales rank.

[darjr]

Just a thread for these. Here is Radiant Citadel just moments before release day.


Funny thing here is the special cover, which some stores decided to sell so it got s rank!

 

[darjr]

Players handbook is 42!

 

[bedir than]

Players handbook is 42!
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That kind of staying power is another indication that the "new edition" will only be minor updates

 

[Reynard]

What do these sales ranks mean? What can we glean from them?

 

[Hussar]

Players handbook is 42!
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That is just so stunningly unbelievable. It's jaw dropping really. That an almost ten year old game book is selling at pretty much the same rate as it always has been. I don't think the PHB has ever dropped out of the top hundred (or just barely if it did) for almost a decade. This isn't just a best selling game book, this is getting into best selling book of all time territory. We're talking Stephen King level of sales.

Does anyone know what printing the PHB is on now? Has anyone bought a new PHB recently?

 

[TerraDave]

That kind of staying power is another indication that the "new edition" will only be minor updates

Or, to get people to buy the new edition, they will need to do more than a minor update.

But this certainly turns up the pressure, whatever they decide.

 

[TerraDave]

As for radiant, its both different/novel, and an adventure. If it gets some buzz, it can rise. If not, it may do quite poorly.

 

[Reynard]

As for radiant, its both different/novel, and an adventure. If it gets some buzz, it can rise. If not, it may do quite poorly.

I was underwhelmed enough by Candlekeep Mysteries that another anthology of very short adventures just doesn't interest me.

 

[Guest 7034872]

That #42 is for the list of all US book sales??? Wow.....

 

[Jer]

What do these sales ranks mean? What can we glean from them?

They're a weighted sum of all sales on all of the books in Amazon's database. More recent sales have a higher weight than older sales, so it's not just a total number of lifetime sales ranking. The actual weights they use are as far as I know not public knowledge but the further ago the sales are the closer those weights get to 0.

Things shuffle around on the list a bit over time - for example it's just a few hours later and the PHB is now 46. So you see things that are a mix of books that are constantly selling new copies (like the Hungry Little Caterpillar, which is on the list at #19) and things that are hot in the moment (like the current #1 as I type this - Where the Crawdad's Sing - which has a film out right now).

The top part of the list shuffles around a bit because of how it gives more weight to the more recent sales, but being in the top 50 of all books on Amazon probably means that its doing fairly well in recent sales with a good history of more recent (whatever that means for Amazon) older sales.