AD&D Settings Sales Comparison 79-98

I know there have been a lot of these threads, and I'm holding off on any kind of overarching summary/compilation article until they're all in, but this one in particular jumped out at me. Again, this is from Ben Riggs, author of Slaying the Dragon, a history of TSR-era D&D, going out next month.

Slaying the Dragon - Macmillan

The secret and untold story of how TSR, the company that created Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, then ...

read.macmillan.com

This graph shows a number of legacy settings and the total sales of their core setting product. Forgotten Realms is, of course, the top one. Interestingly, the other two settings that WotC has revisited in 5E -- Ravenloft and Spelljammer -- are near the bottom of the chart.

Ben says he will be providing the remaining settings tomorrow, and I'll update this post with those when he does.

1. Forgotten Realms
2. Greyhawk
3. Dragonlance
4. Ravenloft
5. Dark Sun
6. Spelljammer

 

[Reynard]

Spelljammer is simply the cap stone to unite all the other settings they have published so far.

If it was a capstone it would have come out AFTER DL and Dark Sun.

 

[Jer]

It occurs to me that the fact that Spelljammer and presumably Dark Sun -- less settings, as far as sales are concerned -- are getting reboots suggests we are in fact in the late stages of an edition cycle.

For Spelljammer specifically I suspect it's because multiverses are in the zeitgeist right now and Spelljammer was seen as easier to warp into something for the current audience than Planescape. It's also much easier to remake something you view as cool potentially but flawed in execution than something that actually worked the first time.

But for all of their setting pushes I suspect it's their position as a potential "new" brand that is getting them new looks - like a lot of nostalgia marketing.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Okay, I suppose I can wrap my head around why Spelljammer and Dark Sun had such small sales: even though I think they're awesome, they don't fit the standard Dark Ages/Middle Ages European fantasy trope, so maybe casual players weren't so taken with them back in the day. Fine. But dude, Ravenloft??? Really?? One of the best settings for one of the best adventure modules ever published, yet its sales are half those of Dragonlance?

I'm thinking there must be a variable or two that I'm overlooking here...

EDIT: Okay, here's one variable I overlooked: time. Sales of all settings seem to have tanked in the mid or late 80s and into the 90s, so some of these might be just victims of a down market.

Thread on sales trends through the years

 

[darjr]

I suppose it’s possible that things like the desires of creators have had a hand in what 5e does. After all they decide what to do next via a high level pitch of sorts. Also with a longer term plan too. So someone, one of the producer/creators, wanted to do Spelljammer and Dragonlance. True, financials and sales viability have to come into it and probably did, but I think it’s obvious they thought it was worth it despite sales of TSR

 

[Reynard]

For Spelljammer specifically I suspect it's because multiverses are in the zeitgeist right now and Spelljammer was seen as easier to warp into something for the current audience than Planescape.

I thing broadly speaking Planescape would be an easier sell for that, except Planescape had a very specific setting that was, frankly, weird associated with it. That is of course why lots of people love it, but also why it probably isn't as good a choice for mass market appeal. "Pirates on Space Sailboats" is a pretty easy to grasp foundation, even if it isn't a complete picture.

 

[mykesfree]

Since this is lifetime sales, can the OP or someone with History of the products overlay when each setting was released, as well as how many products were released for each setting?

 

[Jer]

I thing broadly speaking Planescape would be an easier sell for that, except Planescape had a very specific setting that was, frankly, weird associated with it. That is of course why lots of people love it, but also why it probably isn't as good a choice for mass market appeal. "Pirates on Space Sailboats" is a pretty easy to grasp foundation, even if it isn't a complete picture.

Right. Also Planescape was a critical success in its day and spawned a video game that is also critically acclaimed while Spelljammer, despite how much I personally love the concept, was a critical flop[*]. I can see it being much easier for a design team to look at those two options and see which one they'd want to be compared to and which one they wouldn't with their new take. Plus the visual design elements of fantasy ships flying through space is hard to argue with (and arguably Spelljammer complements the Magic side of the business more than Planescape does too, bringing in something new where Planescape and MtG's concepts of Planeswalkers have a lot of overlap).

[*] Spelljammer also had a video game back in the day. But it never had the critical success that Torment did and a lot of folks don't even seem to recall that it existed. SSI never made a sequel to it, and they seemed to be ready to make a sequel of any game that was even a moderate success where they could reuse the engine back in the day.

 

[Parmandur]

Okay, I suppose I can wrap my head around why Spelljammer and Dark Sun had such small sales: even though I think they're awesome, they don't fit the standard Dark Ages/Middle Ages European fantasy trope, so maybe casual players weren't so taken with them back in the day. Fine. But dude, Ravenloft??? Really?? One of the best settings for one of the best adventure modules ever published, yet its sales are half those of Dragonlance?

I'm thinking there must be a variable or two that I'm overlooking here...

EDIT: Okay, here's one variable I overlooked: time. Sales of all settings seem to have tanked in the mid or late 80s and into the 90s, so some of these might be just victims of a down market.

Thread on sales trends through the years

The variable is thst this is strictly comparing Core Setting products, so things like, say, Castle Ravenloft or the DL modules aren't included.

 

[nyteshade_xt]

Since this is lifetime sales, can the OP or someone with History of the products overlay when each setting was released, as well as how many products were released for each setting?

Yes, this please! Spelljammer, Dark Sun and Ravenloft were all release much later in the presented timeframe than the other settings. The data as presented is misleading and should have been normalized in some way.

 

[Parmandur]

Given the trends in core book sales I suspect it has more correlation with year of release than anything about the product specifically. Sales overall decrease pretty precipitously from the late 80s through to the bankruptcy.

Which came first: the chicken, or the egg...?