D&D 5E (2014) Amazon: D&D at the start of 2018

[darjr]

Tome of foes is at 122

 

[Warbringer]

Unless the ICV2 figures are completely wrong D&D is making about 25 to 35 million a year.

It's nice adjusted for inflation only a couple of years of D&D can beat that (83 maybe 82 maybe 3.0 1st year).

Not sure what profit margins are and maybe they make a bit shipping to Amazon direct but the paper rpg might only make less than 10 million profit probably no more than 20.

Not sure how much tie in products make. D&D is chump change for Hasbro.

Remember, WoTc makes about 50% the retail price

 

[Mistwell]

Also isn't ICv2 only for retail store distribution, and not things like Amazon and Barnes and Noble?

Edit: Yes, I just checked the reference to industry size, and it appears to include this notation, "These do not take into account online sales, direct sales, Amazon, or anything other than hobby retail sales (although they do include Kickstarter)."

However, I am not positive that notation is intended for the total estimate or not. It's also from 2014, and the industry has grown since then. So you decide.

 

[Jester David]

Remember, WoTc makes about 50% the retail price

Actually, the base price breakdown tends to be 40% store, 20% distributor, 20% printer, 20% publisher. WotC gets 20%.

 

[Warbringer]

Actually, from a revenue perspective they get to book the sale price to the distributor (which I was assuming was 50% because of Amazon)

 

[Zardnaar]

Actually, from a revenue perspective they get to book the sale price to the distributor (which I was assuming was 50% because of Amazon)

Either way its still only around $10 per book (20% of $50, 50% of deep discounts on Amazon so maybe $13. I don't think 5E has sold a million units yet due to Mearls not mentioning it since he has claimed it has outsold everything apart from BECMI and 1E. If it had sold 2 million for example they still have only made 20 million dollars over almost 4 years from the PHB which we all know is the biggest selling D&D book. If D&D is getting 20-30 million in revenue WotC is making (at best) 6-15 million dollars plus whatever they get off the games and VTT.

Its still a nice amount of money but a decent movie or video game is 10 or 20 years profit in one hit. The problem being that a decent movie or game is going to eat huge a huge amount of money and its not worth paying WoTC licensing fees to make a decent game or movie. An average priced game is 80 million, a cheap movie is still a few tens of million and a D&D movie will need some costumes or CGI.

5E is doing really well by D&D standards but I think some people get carried away with what it is realistically making. It not really doing that much better than say 2E but back then a great game could be made for less than 1 million dollars or you could get the movie license for 10k IIRC.

A good D&D game by default has to be an indie game.

 

[Parmandur]

Either way its still only around $10 per book (20% of $50, 50% of deep discounts on Amazon so maybe $13. I don't think 5E has sold a million units yet due to Mearls not mentioning it since he has claimed it has outsold everything apart from BECMI and 1E. If it had sold 2 million for example they still have only made 20 million dollars over almost 4 years from the PHB which we all know is the biggest selling D&D book. If D&D is getting 20-30 million in revenue WotC is making (at best) 6-15 million dollars plus whatever they get off the games and VTT.

Its still a nice amount of money but a decent movie or video game is 10 or 20 years profit in one hit. The problem being that a decent movie or game is going to eat huge a huge amount of money and its not worth paying WoTC licensing fees to make a decent game or movie. An average priced game is 80 million, a cheap movie is still a few tens of million and a D&D movie will need some costumes or CGI.

5E is doing really well by D&D standards but I think some people get carried away with what it is realistically making. It not really doing that much better than say 2E but back then a great game could be made for less than 1 million dollars or you could get the movie license for 10k IIRC.

A good D&D game by default has to be an indie game.

Well, they are also making money from other sources, such as Neverwinter (which by all accounts rakes in the $$$, even if the game is mediocre).

 

[Zardnaar]

Well, they are also making money from other sources, such as Neverwinter (which by all accounts rakes in the $$$, even if the game is mediocre).

I did say plus whatever they get from games and VTTs.

 

[Mistwell]

PHB is currently:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5 in Books
DMG:
#31 in Books
MM:
#33 in Book
Xanathar's Guide to Everything:
#57 in Books

 

[fjw70]

Not surprised by these numbers. 5e is a fantastic game. For me it is the game I wanted to be playing back in the 80s when I was playing BX and 1e. I really enjoyed BX and 1e but 5e blows them out of the water for me.