ICv2 Reports On RPGs Growth This Year

ICv2 has published its latest quarterly hobby channel game rankings for Spring 2022. The Top 5 contains D&D twice (once from WotC, and once from third parties Goodman Games and Darrington Press/Critical Role), along with two licensed Hasbro (owner of WotC) properties, plus Pathfinder.

"RPGs are the story of the year so far," a hobby distributor told ICv2. "D&D’s king by leaps and bounds, don’t get me wrong, but the number of RPGs that were [significant contributors to] sales was 40 different brands."

The chart is based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. As always you can see the compiled chart going back to 2004 here.

RPGs the 'Story of the Year'

Explosive Growth in Players, Sales

icv2.com

 

[Reynard]

No I haven’t linked it. Find it for yourself. It’s one of Morrus’ Podcasts from earlier this year in discussion with some industry analyst. It isn’t as if providing links and sources actually makes any difference with the posters on this thread anyway.

That was unnecessarily rude.

 

[doctorhook]

Looks pretty much like a monopoly to me.

Monopoly TTRPG confirmed! /s

Appropriately, it’s also a Hasbro brand lol

 

[Reynard]

@Morrus Do you know which podcast episode @TrippyHippy might be referring to that talks about D&D as a monopoly of dominant market force?

I tried to search but was coming up empty.

 

[TrippyHippy]

That was unnecessarily rude.

Was it? Because, again, I thought a Mod had asked people to stop bickering about definitions and all I am reading is a bunch of dogpiling posters wanting to continue with it, regardless.

 

[Umbran]

No I haven’t linked it. Find it for yourself. It’s one of Morrus’ Podcasts from earlier this year in discussion with some industry analyst. It isn’t as if providing links and sources actually makes any difference with the posters on this thread anyway.

Mod Note:
If you have so little respect for the people, it is a wonder why you engage at all.

I'll alleviate you from the need to respond further to this discussion.

 

[Gammadoodler]

The chart at the top of the thread is for Tabletop RPG, which is the context of what we are discussing. I would challenge you to find any retailer that sells tabletop RPG that doesn’t sell D&D5E. I know of several that only sell D&D5E. Do you think that is an extraordinarily weak situation for them?

It means they are strong within their niche, a niche which has seen remarkable growth over the last few years, but, in the grand scheme of things, a very small niche.

The question, it seems to me, is how much power (external to the quality of their product) they can wield within that niche. Are the retailers who sell D&D exclusively doing so because it's part of the contract with D&D, or is it because it's the only TTRPG that they can reliably sell? Do we think that D&D has sufficient power in their negotiations with their distributors to successfully bake that into their agreements?

I doubt it. Frankly, I just do not think there are a lot of businesses that are that reliant on TTRPG sales. Amazon sure isn't. Other bookstores aren't. Comic shops aren't. Maybe some FLGSs might be, but not any that I've seen. Perhaps some VTTs are, but at that point we're at a niche within a niche.

D&D is doing very well. That does not mean that D&D is very strong.

 

[Jimmy Dick]

I don't mind 5e being at the top of the list at all. That game system does a wonderful job of getting new players into the hobby and as a rules system is very good. What I like the most about 5e is how it feeds players into Pathfinder 2e and Pathfinder Society 2e. My lodges have a very substantial number of players who play both systems and that is perfectly fine. The rising tide and floating boats is very apt and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

D&D is not only the most popular TTRPG, but also the "icebreaker" what created the market, and today it belongs to Hasbro (name from "Hassenfeld Brothers"), one of the biggest megacorporations within the toy and game industry. The other companies lack the ways for a "product emplacement" in the main media like this.

And the players would rather to use only one system, and more when this is so focused into the "crunch". And some TTRPG franchises are better known than videogames, for example Vampire: the Mascarade, Pathfinder or Mutant: Year Zero(Call of Chulthu is different). And there is an inertia, because the new players get used to the system used by the most, not only with TTRPG, but with the wargames. In little cities the players bet for Games Workshop because is easier to find more players following the same game or system.

A lot of time ago I bought "Eclipse Phase" and I loved the lore, but I am not used yet to the list of abilities scores.

There are more titles, but these are focused into the storytelling part, and the players would rather to spend money with sourcebooks about "crunch".

 

[Luceilia]

There's a PR RPG? :O

Based on multiple YT reviews... It doesn't seem good...

D20 style leveling, colors as classes, zordon era obsession (don't get me wrong I loved that era, but at this point it's what, 15-20% of PR at most?)....

 

[Parmandur]

I mean... I did provide you a link to the FTC's explanation of "Monopolization defined" so that you could see how it works in the real world (and it's written for laymen to understand it). So ... I guess you're right! People don't bother with links.

But if you want another overview, try this. Go to section 2. You'll see why "bigness" alone is not an issue- it's really about the leveraging of market power. Which ... yeah.

If you have any stories about Hasbro leveraging the market power of D&D within the TTRPG space to exclude competition, I'd be all ears.

The OGL might be one of the most astonishing Judo moves in the history of intellectual property: giving away tons of stuff to competitors, which benefits competitors and e courage them to make products compatible with your own products...without being in the least anti-competitive? Genius.