In case it hasn't been said enough: Sales figures are fairly useless. Sure books will sell indeterminate quantities. But it's the profit that matters. Not the sales. Some companies can have annual sales of $100,000 and turn a profit. Other companies could sell $10,000,000 in a year and potentially lose money. Raw numbers are misleading. Will more books make the company more profitable? That's the real question.
D&D 5E Wanting more content doesn't always equate to wanting tons of splat options so please stop.
- Thread starter Corpsetaker
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Tony Vargas
Legend
Where does he get those wonderful numbers?
There was a lot of complaining about 3.5, but I doubt many folks outright refused to buy into the new ed, eventually - too much good stuff came out for it! - maybe, some of us 'got by' with the old core books and the SRD (but what kind of skinflint would do that?). ;|
Zardnaar
Legend
The numbers are out there via Dancey and Erik Mona.
3.0 500k+
3.5 250k-350k.
Mearls also said 5E has outsold them but not added together (Dancey has claimed 3E sold 1 million+ combined).
So depending on who you believe wither way 3.0 outsold 3.5 by a lot and 3.5 outsold Pathfinder which outsold 4E.
3.5 is seen as the definitive version of 3.x I suppose but its not the best selling one (I like it better than 3.0)
It also contributed to the crash of 2004, 4E came up 2005 and design started 2006. So depending on who you bevel (Dancey/Mona) 3.0 sold anywhere from 50-100% more than 3.5 assuming the numbers are somewhere in the ball park.
Dancey's post is over at the GitP forums, Eriks were at a presentation out east in 2014 before 5E landed IIRC and are a bit lower (15% IIRC) than Dancey's but he used the 500k+ and 250k-350k estimates range so Danceys higher numbers are plausible I suppose its not like they are 50% or more than Monas.
And then you have Mearls claiming 5E has outsold them which would put some context to it so I think the numbers are believable at least in a "in the ballpark" range. We know 3.0 sold very well for example better than 3.5 just not the exact numbers unless those numbers are right.
We do not know 4E's exact numbers either (there are estimates around) but since they started talking about 5E in 2010 and we know the Paizo growth rate, size of the RPG market etc none of these figures contradict each other or are unbelievable.
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Satyrn
First Post
He's the World's Greatest Statistician. He compiles them in his Zardcave.
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Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Wow! You've said something that I agree with. Of course, I'm not asking him for sales figures.
Zardnaar
Legend
2E had that problem. Annual turnover 40million ,6million D&D players apparently, averaged losing 3 million per year(more like 6+ million in the last few years vs 85-97).
Zardnaar
Legend
I remember where I read stuff. For example I have tracked down old Dungeon adventures I liked in mid 90's for 5E now and when I played 2E in 2012 I could still remember enough of the rules to run it after a 12 year break. If I am after a kit for example I usually know what book it is in.
Sean K Reynolds explained the relativity of the RPG business back in 2002 and people linked to it off the WotC forums. I can still remember some of the old time posters from 2001-2004 as well.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Yeah, but that was more other issues that just numbers of books put out.
Zardnaar
Legend
Yup WoTC is a lot better run. Something doesn't turn out they pull the plug.
Hussar
Legend
Ahh, that's probably why you really disagree with others. WotC would be unbelievably happy if most customers bought 4-5 books per year. The truth is, most customers (i.e. players) buy 0 books per year. 1-2 would cover the next largest group. 4-5 would probably be a tiny fraction of customers. More than that even less still.
