D&D 5E D&D product sales numbers on Amazon, etc.

[Parmandur]

I have been skeptical about the non-mm they are releasing. But, initial sales are strong. CoS strong.



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(And no, not everything they release does this well).



We will see what happens when people actually get their hands on it.

Volo's Guide previews have been very exciting, so that is not surprising.

 

[TerraDave]

Of course. The first paragraph of my post directly relates to the second paragraph you did quote, so I'm not sure what you are getting at.. Print runs of the 5e PHB were being discussed. Until sizes of print runs are known, the number of them are meaningless. 6 runs at 10k per? 20k per? 5k per?

Sure. But it still is in print after this time. 1E stayed in print for many years. 2E off and on.

I don't think 3.5 or 4E ever got errata in a printing. I kinda doubt they did many runs of the 4E one.

 

[happyhermit]

...
How well are Game if Thrones books doing?

I gather this was rhetorical, but I did a quick search... not quite as easy, first book "A song of ice and fire" lets you choose between "68 formats and editions" many of which are not even books. The mass market paperback version is sitting at #1836, but a box set that includes it and 4 other books is at #433.

It's also interesting looking at known bestsellers through this lens. The 2000 printing of the Dragonlance Chronicles are still moving 5-25 books per day (for some reason volumes 1 and 3 of the series move much faster than volume 2) on Amazon alone. That's staying power, I guess.

Though it's a little funky that for the Legends trilogy the second volume sells far better than the first and third.

Interesting stuff.

Considering how low the number of actual sales/day at the higher spots, it is possible that it is just a momentary difference that doesn't affect averages, I agree that it is interesting. That's partially why I liked the original threads, it is much easier to get a picture of a product's success if you know their ranking over time, rather than just at a particular moment.

...
No doubt it's doing well. But every dood in charge of D&D @ WOTC over the years (Slav, Rouse, Mearls) has said how awesome the game has sold and twisted some statistic to their advantage. It's their job to promote and tell us everything is better than it has ever been before.

Not that you are, but it would be difficult to present Mearls' statements comparing the sales numbers of the 5e PHB to previous Wotc edition PHBs as twisting statistics to their advantage. They have the numbers, it would be insane for him to lie about them, HUGE downside with really no positive in the current situation. It is theoretically possible that he was incorrect, I suppose, but not likely and the statements were later clarified. I am sure most people at the company know about the statements and would have corrected the if they knew them to be incorrect.

I have been skeptical about the non-mm they are releasing. But, initial sales are strong. CoS strong.
...
(And no, not everything they release does this well).

We will see what happens when people actually get their hands on it.

That is interesting, especially considering this is the farthest Wotc has gone to potentially divert sales to FLGs and away from Amazon (AFAIK), with the alternate cover.

 

[darjr]

I special ordered it at my flgs. Never have I done that before.

 

[Zardnaar]

Saying 6th printing doesn't mean much without knowing the size of the print runs.

1E print runs were 40k for some of them. WotC wants 100k runs and if true that 5E has outsold 3.0 but not 2E it would indicate 500k to 600k would be a reasonable range as 3.0 sold around 500k apparently (source Dancey/Mona).

 

[delericho]

I don't think 3.5 or 4E ever got errata in a printing. I kinda doubt they did many runs of the 4E one.

3.5e did in both the leather-bound special edition and the recent collector's reprint. I don't know if it ever got into a 'regular' reprint. (Actually, it looks like the 3rd printing included the errata.)

It doesn't look like the 4e PHB ever included errata in a reprint.

 

[Zardnaar]

How many pages of errata was there for the 4E PHB?

 

[delericho]

How many pages of errata was there for the 4E PHB?

There were a lot. If I remember rightly, though, that was mostly because WotC did a full-fledged revision of the page - rather than saying "in power X replace this text with that text" they instead reprinted the entire power.

So the comparison of the number of pages is perhaps a little misleading. (Plus, they also combined both true errata (that is, mistakes) with actual rule revisions - for instance, the revision to magic missile.)

 

[TerraDave]

So the comparison of the number of pages is perhaps a little misleading. (Plus, they also combined both true errata (that is, mistakes) with actual rule revisions - for instance, the revision to magic missile.)

It was a LOT of errata. (One "update" document I have is 115 pages long). But yes, beyond correcting obvious errors, it was lots of whole-sale revision. To the point, where I distinctly remember errata for the errata. Fixing the fixes.

 

[TerraDave]

Volvo's guide is #1...for fantasy gaming. 54 overall. Amazing numbers, especially given how skeptical I have been about it.