www.enworld.org
If you're looking at total lifetime sales - not just initial release year sales - according to these numbers Spelljammer is actually one of the worse selling of the various settings. Dragonlance absolutely sold more - the 1e Dragonlance Adventures hardcover alone sold more than double in its lifetime what the Spelljammer boxed set sold. The original Ravenloft Black Box sold more - Spelljammer outsold it in the first year, but Ravenloft held onto sales over the following few years while Spelljammer tanked. The original Dark Sun boxed set sold about 10K more over its lifetime even before you add in the revised boxed set - another example of it having lower sales than Spelljammer in its first year but then holding onto sales better over the following years. Spelljammer outsold Al-Qadim and Maztica both by a good bit, and sold about 10K more copies than Lankhmar did, but that's about it.
Yeah, goes to show that critical reception and memory are not tied to sales...
Yup
And as it turns out - they're less than Spelljammer. Both for year of initial release and total lifetime sales.
Eh, I don't know, I am not convinced Planescape did any better than Spelljammer. They were both more 'out there' in fantasy terms, but honestly a lot of people were perfectly happy with a Greyhawk/FR style fairly generic setting. I assume that's why those were the big sellers, and why they have continued to be supported over the years while many of the niche settings have languished. Still, it doesn't surprise me at all that Spelljammer outsold stuff like Maztica, that sort of just doesn't quite hit either itch. Its not 'out there', and its not quite 'generic fantasy' either.
