D&D 5E Amazon US book sales rank.

[Reynard]

They're a weighted sum of all sales on all of the books in Amazon's database. More recent sales have a higher weight than older sales, so it's not just a total number of lifetime sales ranking. The actual weights they use are as far as I know not public knowledge but the further ago the sales are the closer those weights get to 0.

Things shuffle around on the list a bit over time - for example it's just a few hours later and the PHB is now 46. So you see things that are a mix of books that are constantly selling new copies (like the Hungry Little Caterpillar, which is on the list at #19) and things that are hot in the moment (like the current #1 as I type this - Where the Crawdad's Sing - which has a film out right now).

The top part of the list shuffles around a bit because of how it gives more weight to the more recent sales, but being in the top 50 of all books on Amazon probably means that its doing fairly well in recent sales with a good history of more recent (whatever that means for Amazon) older sales.

I still don't understand what value the sales rank has for us, looking at them. Especially if they change position constantly.

 

[bedir than]

I still don't understand what value the sales rank has for us, looking at them. Especially if they change position constantly.

The PHB is both selling frequently now and a lot over time.
I think it's topped at #3

 

[Jer]

I still don't understand what value the sales rank has for us, looking at them. Especially if they change position constantly.

It's a mark of sales durability. If something is in the top 100 for an extended period of time it means that it's got some level of constant sell through.

Basically its a piece of evidence that the 5e PHB at least is not following the curves that we see in those numbers that Ben Riggs posted - where the first year of sales was huge and then things fell precipitously. If the PHB is in the top 50 sales rank on Amazon still after 8 years it means that even if there was a burst of sales and then a drop off the level its selling at after that drop off is much higher than the drop offs we were looking at in the numbers Ben Riggs posted. Because to be in the top 50 books being sold by Amazon in the US is an impressive feat period, but to be there after 8 years when recent sales get weighted higher than older sales means those recent sales numbers have to be pretty good.

These are things that we all have heard from the dev team - that the sell through rate of the 5e PHB is still high and its surprised them how well its continued to perform - but its a bit of independent corroboration that the numbers aren't just good for RPGs, they're good when compared to the entire book market.

 

[Reynard]

The PHB is both selling frequently now and a lot over time.
I think it's topped at #3

But we don't have any way of knowing what "a lot" is, right? I wonder if anyone has compiled a graph showing its position over time. That might be interesting, especially if we plot specific events or trends on the graph.

 

[Reynard]

I found this with a quick search:

I am kind of curious what happened in March 2016 that stabilized the position. Were the other dips because it went out of print, maybe?

 

[bedir than]

But we don't have any way of knowing what "a lot" is, right? I wonder if anyone has compiled a graph showing its position over time. That might be interesting, especially if we plot specific events or trends on the graph.

There are various threads with snapshots in time that could provide you with some time based data.

But, the details likely don't matter. The sales rank is just more proof that this edition of D&D is doing things that no other ttrpg has ever done - maintain popularity while growing.

Additional proof, D&D ttrpg revenue was up 15% last quarter year to year. With the full D&D segment only down because of Dark Alliance (which sold well enough to change revenue and profits to the positives in 2021)

 

[Reynard]

One thing that happened in March 2016: Curse of Strahd was released, which was the first WotC only campaign adventure.

 

[darjr]

I found this with a quick search:
View attachment 254330
I am kind of curious what happened in March 2016 that stabilized the position. Were the other dips because it went out of print, maybe?

Those dips in the chart are when it was sold out at Amazon. WotC stopped the printing of the DMG for a short while to print mor PHBs to keep up. (Note I heard this both second hand and mentioned in one of wotcs oodcasts)

 

[darjr]

Radiant Citadel is just a moment ago.


And Spelljammer might just break into the top 100

 

[Reynard]

So, I get the value of the data on the PHB now. What's the value of the short term data on the adventures?