prosfilaes
Adventurer
LibraryThing.com is a website where you can catalog your books. They have a feature that shows how popular a book is over all, and how popular a book has been in a year (based copies entered that year over all books in the system) for the top 100,000 books that year. I looked at every RPG book I could find that had enough copies in the system to possibly be rated (doublechecking Pathfinder and 4E), and pulled out the books that had been ranked in 2011.
Since this is people entering their libraries, there are a lot of older books in the list. So to start, the books that were doing better popularity-wise in 2011 then overall, in alphabetical order.
Adventurer's Vault (4E)
Arcane Power (4E)
Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set (4E)
Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (4E)
MM 4E
Monster Manual 2 (4E)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Combat
PHB 3 (4E)
PHB II (4E)
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep
The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, Volume One: Your Story
Overall, there were 65 roleplaying books that were entered enough times in 2011 to reach the top 100,000. I think the cut-off point was 16 copies added, and there's many-way ties near the bottom.
In order of numbers of copies added:
PHB 3.5
PHB (2E)
MM 1E
PHB (1E)
PHB 4
DMG 3
Call Of Cthulhu (all editions combined)
DMG 2E
DMG 1E
PHB 3.0
MM 3.0
DMG 4
MM 4E
MM 3.5
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook
DMG 3.5
Tome of Magic (2E)
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3E)
Deities and Demigods (1E)
Monstrous Manual (2E)
PHB II (4E)
Unearthed Arcana (1E)
World of Darkness Core Rulebook
GURPS Basic Set (Third Edition)
V:tM 3rd Edition
Monster Manual II (1E)
Fiend Folio (1E)
The Complete Wizard's Handbook (2E)
MM II (3.0)
The Complete Fighter's Handbook (2E)
Vampire: The Requiem
Manual of the Planes (3.0)
Book of Nod
Mage the Awakening
The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, Volume One: Your Story
(Rank 78404 = 20 copies?)
Deities and Demigods (3.0)
GURPS Basic Set: Characters (Fourth Edition)
GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns (Fourth Edition)
Exalted (1st Edition)
Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set (4E)
Adventurer's Vault (4E)
(Rank 82876 = 19 copies?)
Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1st and 2nd edition)
Mage: The Ascension (2nd Edition)
Unearthed Arcana (3.5)
DMG II (3.5)
Darksword Adventures
Arcane Power (4E)
(Rank 88019 = 18 copies?)
Sword and Fist (3.0)
Psionics Handbook (3.0)
The Complete Thief's Handbook (2E)
PHB 3 (4E)
(Rank 93537 = 17 copies?)
Serenity Role Playing Game
Book of Vile Darkness (3.5)
V:tM 2nd Edition
The Draconomicon (3.5)
GURPS Discworld (3E)
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep
Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (4E)
Monster Manual 2 (4E)
(Rank 99793 = 16 copies?)
Epic Level Handbook (3.0)
Complete Divine
The Complete Psionics Handbook (2E)
The Complete Priest's Handbook (2E)
Arms & Equipment Guide (2E)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Combat
It's clear there's a bunch of copies of the old editions floating around, including a bunch of 2E books I'm surprised anyone was admitting to having in these days. (Some of it was good; the Complete X handbook, generally not.) Looking at these numbers has made me a lot more skeptical of Pathfinder matching 4E in sales. (There could be a bias in the set of users, but I don't know why there would be.)
Since this is people entering their libraries, there are a lot of older books in the list. So to start, the books that were doing better popularity-wise in 2011 then overall, in alphabetical order.
Adventurer's Vault (4E)
Arcane Power (4E)
Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set (4E)
Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (4E)
MM 4E
Monster Manual 2 (4E)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Combat
PHB 3 (4E)
PHB II (4E)
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep
The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, Volume One: Your Story
Overall, there were 65 roleplaying books that were entered enough times in 2011 to reach the top 100,000. I think the cut-off point was 16 copies added, and there's many-way ties near the bottom.
In order of numbers of copies added:
PHB 3.5
PHB (2E)
MM 1E
PHB (1E)
PHB 4
DMG 3
Call Of Cthulhu (all editions combined)
DMG 2E
DMG 1E
PHB 3.0
MM 3.0
DMG 4
MM 4E
MM 3.5
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook
DMG 3.5
Tome of Magic (2E)
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3E)
Deities and Demigods (1E)
Monstrous Manual (2E)
PHB II (4E)
Unearthed Arcana (1E)
World of Darkness Core Rulebook
GURPS Basic Set (Third Edition)
V:tM 3rd Edition
Monster Manual II (1E)
Fiend Folio (1E)
The Complete Wizard's Handbook (2E)
MM II (3.0)
The Complete Fighter's Handbook (2E)
Vampire: The Requiem
Manual of the Planes (3.0)
Book of Nod
Mage the Awakening
The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, Volume One: Your Story
(Rank 78404 = 20 copies?)
Deities and Demigods (3.0)
GURPS Basic Set: Characters (Fourth Edition)
GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns (Fourth Edition)
Exalted (1st Edition)
Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set (4E)
Adventurer's Vault (4E)
(Rank 82876 = 19 copies?)
Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1st and 2nd edition)
Mage: The Ascension (2nd Edition)
Unearthed Arcana (3.5)
DMG II (3.5)
Darksword Adventures
Arcane Power (4E)
(Rank 88019 = 18 copies?)
Sword and Fist (3.0)
Psionics Handbook (3.0)
The Complete Thief's Handbook (2E)
PHB 3 (4E)
(Rank 93537 = 17 copies?)
Serenity Role Playing Game
Book of Vile Darkness (3.5)
V:tM 2nd Edition
The Draconomicon (3.5)
GURPS Discworld (3E)
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep
Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (4E)
Monster Manual 2 (4E)
(Rank 99793 = 16 copies?)
Epic Level Handbook (3.0)
Complete Divine
The Complete Psionics Handbook (2E)
The Complete Priest's Handbook (2E)
Arms & Equipment Guide (2E)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Combat
It's clear there's a bunch of copies of the old editions floating around, including a bunch of 2E books I'm surprised anyone was admitting to having in these days. (Some of it was good; the Complete X handbook, generally not.) Looking at these numbers has made me a lot more skeptical of Pathfinder matching 4E in sales. (There could be a bias in the set of users, but I don't know why there would be.)