D&D General Master List of Benn Riggs' D&D Charts and Graphs

[Alzrius]

A quick update with a comparison between the Sunless Citadel adventure path and Dark Sun adventures, along with a note from Riggs. As always, credit goes to @darjr for posting these:

It is with some hesitation that I offer this chart comparing Dark Sun adventure sales in 1992 to Sunless Citadel AP sales in 2001. I have chosen those years because they are the first full year of release for the respective brands, and bluntly, they are years I have sales data for.

This comparison might be apples and oranges

This comparison might be too little data, over too short a period of time.

But! I do think it has some use. Dark Sun had five adventures for sale by the end of 1992. Sunless Citadel had six. But the SC AP sold 43% better than Dark Sun.

If you're looking for data to prove 3rd edition turned D&D around, this might be a piece of it.

Next, I'll release sales data for other adventures up for sale in 2001, such as Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Have you read my book? Link below.

Raw sales data also below.

-Ben

 

[Alzrius]

And this time we have the first six adventures in the Sunless Citadel adventure path for 2001 along with two other adventures released around the same time, plus another explanatory quote, all from the thread linked to previously:

Behold! Total D&D 3rd ed adventure sales for 2001, by both month and in total!
In 2001, Wizards of the Coast sold 201,917 3rd edition D&D adventures.
The best selling adventure of the year was Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil with 41,713 units sold, and the worst seller was Into the Dragon’s Lair with 5,529 copies moved.
To me, this data again suggests the strength of D&D after the slow bleed of the late 1990s.
Next week, I will start diving into the 3rd edition splatbooks, such as Sword & Fist and Defenders of the Faith.
Interested in all this data? Check out my book, now in paperback! Link below.
Also, as always, raw data is below.

 

[Stormonu]

Who was it on the D&D team that said "D&D adventures don't sell" during 3E?

 

[Alzrius]

And a new update for some sales metrics of splatbooks from 2001 for D&D 3.0, along with a quote of Ben's statement on the subject. Thanks, as always, to @darjr for posting these.

Behold! Splatbook sales numbers for D&D 3rd ed in 2001!

The first image shows total sales by product and by month. It shows the strength of 3rd edition’s debut. For example, the product with the best debut sales was Song & Silence, which sold over 72,000 copies in its first two months. Having reviewed years of TSR data where trendlines go down, down, down, and down, it is refreshing to see them go up for a change!

And how do these numbers compare to the 2nd edition splatbooks? They hold up pretty well. The second image compares the 2001 sales numbers to the 1990 2nd ed splatbook numbers. (1990 was the first full year of splatbook releases for TSR.) As you can see, 2nd ed sales edge out 3rd ed by a hair, but they had six splatbooks for sale as compared to 3rd edition’s four.

Again, I interpret these numbers to mean that 3rd edition had a solid launch and that enthusiasm for the game grew over the course of the year. But if you think I’m wrong, don’t be shy in telling me about it!

Interested in all this data? Check out my book, now in paperback! Link below.

Also, as always, raw data is below.