D&D 5E 3 Years Later: D&D's total Domination on Amazon (and Earth in General)

TerraDave · Aug 2, 2017

So, as many of you know, a little over three years ago I started tracking how the new 5E was selling on Amazon.

When I started that first thread the PHB went from the #1 new release for gaming, to the #1 new release overall, to the #1 overall book being sold through Amazon. Out of all books sold through Amazon. The Starter Set, DMG, and MM also did extremely well.

At that time, lets just say that people where skeptical.

Now here we stand three years latter, and the PHB is still in the top 100 of overall sales at Amazon. Out of all books sold through Amazon.

Here are the overall sales ranks as of this post:

PHB: #86
DMG: #302
MM: #333
S. Set: #945.

This is what fantasy gaming looks like:

Screen Shot 2017-08-02 at 2.32.45 PM.png

robus · Aug 2, 2017

Whoever gets the 6th edition production job is going to have some big boots to fill!

Mistwell · Aug 2, 2017

Cue these arguments, made by someone every time this topic is mentioned, in true conspiracy theory "Let me provide claims which cannot be proven by their nature" tone:

1) "These don't include digital sales, and Pathfinder sells everything through digital sales (even though they used to rank well in ICv2 and decent at Amazon, and D&D also sells digitally but those somehow don't count)"; and
2) "My super secret distributor contact, who told me this in confidence, and whose name I will not reveal, told me Pathfinder still sells more total sales every month than 5e. I cannot provide proof of this, because it's secret, but it's true."

These arguments are, of course, ridiculous. But I've seen people respond this way every time the topic comes up.

Sacrosanct · Aug 2, 2017

What ever peoples' opinions, this is good for the hobby. I am happy.

KarinsDad · Aug 2, 2017

So are these all time rankings?

Or ranking this month (or quarter or whatever)?

What's the time frame?

TerraDave · Aug 2, 2017

KarinsDad said:
So are these all time rankings?

Or ranking this month (or quarter or whatever)?

What's the time frame?

3 years.

...Numbers above are based on recent sales. The core books have staid in this range for almost the whole time since there release.

KarinsDad · Aug 2, 2017

TerraDave said:
3 years.

...Numbers above are based on recent sales. The core books have staid in this range for almost the whole time since there release.

What does "recent sales" mean?

Is the PHB #86 out of all books sold in the last month?

Is the PHB #86 out of all books sold in the last 3 months?

Is the PHB #86 out of all books sold year to date?

Is the PHB #86 out of all books sold since Amazon started?

Without the time frame of what the numbers mean, they have little meaning. Phrases like "recent sales" give no information about the data.

What algorithm does Amazon use?

Note: I was curious, so I just went to Amazon and the PHB is listed best seller #96, not #86.

It is also listed as #45 year to date.

It's listed as #42 on the most wished for.

These last two give us an idea of the demand for the PHB. The overall list? It tells us nothing without knowing what it is based on.

If the PHB is #45 year to date and #96 on the best seller list, I suspect that the time frame for the best seller list is since Amazon started. The time frame for the best seller list would appear to HAVE to be longer than year to date, especially since you have been watching the list over the last 3 years and it hasn't been changing a lot. It has to be total books sold.

TerraDave · Aug 2, 2017

KarinsDad said:
What does "recent sales" mean?

Without the time frame of what the numbers mean, they have little meaning. Phrases like "recent sales" give no information about the data.

....

Note: I was curious, so I just went to Amazon and the PHB is listed best seller #96, not #86.

It is also listed as #45 year to date.

It's listed as #42 on the most wished for.

These last two give us an idea of the demand for the PHB. The overall list? It tells us nothing without knowing what it is based on.

If the PHB is #45 year to date and #96 on the best seller list, I suspect that the time frame for the best seller list is since Amazon started. The time frame for the best seller list would appear to HAVE to be longer than year to date, especially since you have been watching the list over the last 3 years and it hasn't been changing a lot. It has to be total books sold.

No to all that.

Its a relative ranking, so its means that the PHB is outselling thousands of other books. Thats what it means.

Its not on the lifetime of Amazon (PHB--the 60th best selling book for all time on Amazon...that would be really incredible), nor the PHB. Any given day the PHB can range from ~55 to 105. That ranking changes all the time.

And its one ranking for Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-books-Amazon/zgbs/books/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_1#1

Game books traditionally would start with a high ranking (high means for a game book means roughly around 1000) and then fall sharply. The corebooks have not followed that pattern.

Mistwell · Aug 2, 2017

KarinsDad said:
What algorithm does Amazon use?

It's the largest corporation in America. You're asking for their most closely guarded trade secret. Let me guess, if you don't get the answer to that question this data will somehow be in question even though it's literally the industry standard for not just books across most of the planet now, but many other product categories as well?

Like I predicted, here come the conspiracy theories. By which I mean here come the objections which, by their nature, cannot be proven or disproven (like asking for Amazon's top secret algorithm before trusting Amazon's reporting data).

KarinsDad · Aug 2, 2017

TerraDave said:
No to all that.

Its a relative ranking, so its means that the PHB is outselling thousands of other books. Thats what it means.

Its not on the lifetime of Amazon (PHB--the 60th best selling book for all time on Amazon...that would be really incredible), nor the PHB. Any given day the PHB can range from ~55 to 105. That ranking changes all the time.

And its one ranking for Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-books-Amazon/zgbs/books/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_1_1#1

Game books traditionally would start with a high ranking (high means for a game book means roughly around 1000) and then fall sharply. The corebooks have not followed that pattern.

So again, what does "recent sales" mean?

The last 8 hours?

The last 24 hours?

It's curious that it is listed as #45 on the year to date list, but you state that it ranges ~#55 to #105 on any given day. Wouldn't it have to be higher than that to be #45 year to date? Shouldn't the pattern be something like in the #24 to #60 range on any given hour if it is #45 year to date? Or has it dropped off a lot within the last few months?

Something doesn't add up. So again, what does "recent sales" mean?

Do you know?