I like the release of actual sales figures for the Starter Set. 126,000 in North America in 2014 (from the July release); 306,000 in North America in 2018. I wonder what we can extrapolate from that!
Half of that is from the last decade, basically.So 40 million since 1974. So under a million per year. BOY WHAT A NICHE HOBBY.
I can't speak for other countries, but from what I hear, D&D5 is selling quite well in Germany, but the numbers are still negligible when compared to the English version (last thing I hear was that sales had crossed 6000 copies). In general, the number of players seems to be growing again (which is great), but the hobby is still an absolute niche.
Originally Posted by Parmandur
The core books and Starter's Kit were all translated and published in Japanese by the end of 2017 (I brought my Japanese version of the Player's handbook to GaryCon X and got it signed by by Mike Mearls, Tracy Hickman and Joe Manganiello- which was all pretty cool). Since then several of the adventures and other rules books have been translated into Japanese although I haven't kept up on buying them all (I have them in English, after all). So it seems to be doing fine in Japan.
Anecdotal, but it leads me to suspect there’s a LOT of regular players out there who are pretty invested but still haven’t tried both sides of the table, I suspect because there’s always been someone else to step in and DM and save them from the intimidating proposition of running a game.
Well, it seems they clarified it (responding without having read the rest of the thread yet).
The number is a hype number (no other hard numbers to back it up, such as PHB's sold total...etc.). <...> They want the impression that it is selling well and everyone is buying into it. This is good for marketing in some instances.
This is not good logic. How lazy you are as a person cannot be measured by whether you choose to play or DM for a game.
Um, there's the implied context of my statement: In the context of the RPG hobby, players are lazier.
It's neither a particularly controversial viewpoint nor lacking in logic.
That's an unwarranted generalization.Um, there's the implied context of my statement: In the context of the RPG hobby, players are lazier.
Where you went wrong was in drawing conclusions about people's innate qualities (so, yeah, your logic was flawed), rather than making a point about the game: that players generally have less work to do (acquiring knowledge of the system, prep, attention & energy at the table) and shoulder less responsibility for the success of a session & campaign than the DM.It's neither a particularly controversial viewpoint nor lacking in logic.