From Forgotten Realms to Red Steel: Here's That Full D&D Setting Sales Chart

Whether this will end a thousand internet arguments or fuel another thousand, Ben Riggs, author of Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons, has finally published the combined chart of cumulative sales for every AD&D setting from 1979 to 1999.

Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Oriental Adventures, and Dragonlance lead the pack. The least selling setting was Red Steel in 1994. There was a clear decline in sales of all settings from 1989 onwards, so that's not necessary a comment on quality. Planescape, certainly a cult favourite, sold surprisingly few copies.

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

In order, the best-selling settings were:

1. Forgotten Realms
2. Greyhawk
3. Oriental Adventures
4. Dragonlance
5. Ravenloft
6. Dark Sun
7. Spelljammer
8. Lankhmar
9. Al-Qadim
10. Planescape
11. Birthright
12. Maztica
13. Karameikos
14. Red Steel

These stats were compiled as part of his research into his book, Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons, which you should totally buy.

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

Let's dive into some individual sales charts! Note, these are for the primary setting product, not for additional adventures, supplements, etc.

 

[Mannahnin]

The other question is whether there is a market for a 5E megadungeon of that scope, beyond being a historical curiosity. 5E isn't really designed for that kind of play.

Even if it's not the focus, they did do Dungeon of the Mad Mage, right?

Again, just spitballing, but they could include a couple of pages of basic dungeon crawling procedures, similar to, say, what @iserith composed for their 5E game.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Emphasis mine.

That's the part that makes me wonder whether Greyhawk is a good choice.

Of course it is. This is IP 101.

Greyhawk (and all the associated artifacts, relics, NPCs, monsters, and places) is the foundation of D&D.

If they reboot it, think of all of the youtube videos etc. of people "explaining" the history. Of the Easter Eggs. Not to mention it's great for the brand.

It would be criminal mismanagement to NOT use the 50th to re-introduce it.

 

[CleverNickName]

Hm. Snarf makes an excellent point. At first I was dubious, but I'm coming 'round to that way of thinking. A "Greyhawk 50th Anniversary" book would be like printing money. It's a no-brainer.

 

[Jer]

I'd love to see the numbers for Mystara, but it would be nearly impossible to do. Especially in a way that might be comparable to the other campaign settings.

The best proxy for it would be to look at the individual Gazetteer sales without aggregating them together into one chunk. It would be nice to see how Gaz1 compares to other items on this list (though it came out in the same year as the FR grey box and the Dragonlance Adventures hardcover, so it both benefits from being released in a year when TSR was still making fairly reasonable numbers on their products but also would likely be hurt by the comparison to those two books - though the FR grey box didn't sell as high as I might have thought, so who knows?)

But I'm not interested in such comparisons; I'm just curious how well it sold overall. I'm a fan.

Agreed.

 

[Reynard]

Even if it's not the focus, they did do Dungeon of the Mad Mage, right?

Again, just spitballing, but they could include a couple of pages of basic dungeon crawling procedures, similar to, say, what @iserith composed for their 5E game.

Was there a less well liked and successful 5E adventure than DotMM?

Also, you need more than a couple procedures to make 5E work with old school style megadungeon exploration.

 

[Reynard]

Of course it is. This is IP 101.

Greyhawk (and all the associated artifacts, relics, NPCs, monsters, and places) is the foundation of D&D.

If they reboot it, think of all of the youtube videos etc. of people "explaining" the history. Of the Easter Eggs. Not to mention it's great for the brand.

It would be criminal mismanagement to NOT use the 50th to re-introduce it.

If you say so. I think a lot of the current audience would "Ok boomer" that book and leave it right on the shelf.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

If you say so. I think a lot of the current audience would "Ok boomer" that book and leave it right on the shelf.

Sure. Just like they "OK BOOMERed" Ravenloft, because that's old IP?
Or they are going to "OK BOOMER" Spelljammer?
Or they "OK BOOMER" D&D? Because, c'mon, that's an old game.

This is kinda sorta insulting. We have Ghosts of Saltmarsh (well regarded). We have Mordenkainen (that's one of the OGs of Greyhawk). We have Tasha (also Greyhawk). We have Vecna in the news (guess where Vecna started).

At a certain point, the gratuitous insults about Greyhawk and the assumptions about grognards passes from disagreement to something a little less nice.

 

[Reynard]

Sure. Just like they "OK BOOMERed" Ravenloft, because that's old IP?
Or they are going to "OK BOOMER" Spelljammer?
Or they "OK BOOMER" D&D? Because, c'mon, that's an old game.

This is kinda sorta insulting. We have Ghosts of Saltmarsh (well regarded). We have Mordenkainen (that's one of the OGs of Greyhawk). We have Tasha (also Greyhawk). We have Vecna in the news (guess where Vecna started).

At a certain point, the gratuitous insults about Greyhawk and the assumptions about grognards passes from disagreement to something a little less nice.

You can choose to be insulted if you want, but that wasn't my intent.

 

[Mannahnin]

Was there a less well liked and successful 5E adventure than DotMM?

I don't know. Do you have numbers or data to support the premise that it did particularly badly?

Also, you need more than a couple procedures to make 5E work with old school style megadungeon exploration.

Have you read iserith's procedures? They're pretty simple and straightforward and evidently work.

Obviously 5E is not B/X, but it doesn't take much to make dungeon crawling more procedural and fun. If I were giving a megadungeon a second chance in 5E (5.5), it seems to me like a great place to showcase the return of dungeon crawling mechanics.

 

[darjr]

If Spelljammer is being OK boomered then I’m sure WotC will want more of that.
It’s like at the top 100 out of all books on Amazon US in preorder.