WotC WotC can, and probably should support multiple editions of D&D.

[Micah Sweet]

Awesome until they go bankrupt and this time there's no white knight to save them and the game slowly dies.

As I said, great for consumers until the fall. And TSR got pretty far and published a lot of awesome stuff before the fall came. And in the end the game didn't die, and according to what you've said many times (as a advocate for 5e being the best D&D), just got better.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That describes many of my attempts to check out D&D stuff. When 5e came around, I thought, finally, there are only a few books, I can find a way to try this D&D thing that I somehow missed as a kid.

That just doesn't make sense to me. Nothing's making you buy more books. More content is just more choices.

 

[Parmandur]

I am not estimating, we have the bookscan data and the other TSE data through 1999

According to the bookscan data (as of 2023) and TSR sales through 1999 poster earlier:

Yet again, it must be noted that the bookscan data seems to represent about 25-30% of 5E print sales, so the numbers you cite precisely indicate that 5E has outsold both 1E and BD&D.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Awesome until they go bankrupt and this time there's no white knight to save them and the game slowly dies.

Micah has already expressed this is his preferred outcome.

 

[Hussar]

I am not estimating, we have the bookscan data and the other TSE data through 1999

According to the bookscan data (as of 2023) and TSR sales through 1999 poster earlier:

5EPHB: 1.6M - 1EPHB: 1.6M
5EDMG: 800k - 1EDMG: 1.3M
5EMM: 800k - 1EMM: 1.1M
5E Starter+Essentials: 1.6M - 1E Basic (all versions): 3M

5E total top 15 on Bookscan: 6M (includes DM screen and cookbook)
5E total top 15 on Bookscan plus all adventure sales: <8M
Total reported for 1E: 10M we know of and is missing many major hardcover publications and all adventures




By about 500,000 copies according to the data posted on this thread.




Except most of those 20 did not sell 100,000 for 5E. Only 4 of the 20 adventures for 5E sold over 100k copies (COS, WDH, TYP and HODQ). The average is more like 60k and 70*20k is in fact more than 20*60k

And I also think it is more than 20k on average for the 1E modules. I don't know what the number is for 1E modules, but I haven't seen you post numbers either. But I do know that the 5E adventures average around 60k each (as of 2023)




It is above.

Now how about you provide some math and numbers!

Citation please? Because these numbers are wildly inaccurate.

 

[Staffan]

That just doesn't make sense to me. Nothing's making you buy more books. More content is just more choices.

In some cases, I've seen entire subsystems relegated to sourcebooks. The first one that comes to mind is the 4th edition of the Swedish game Eon, where there is no magic system or system for martial techniques, because those are in later sourcebooks (published about 5 years later). You also have a regional sourcebook which completely rewrites the system for prayers/religious magic.

 

[ECMO3]

Again, the bookscan numbers represent a fraction of 5E book sales

Yes a very high fraction, estimated to be 75%.

Mark those 5E numbers up 33%, including the adventures, including the 5E cookbook and including the 5E DMs Screen and they are STILL lower than the 1E reported sales on the relatively few books and sets we have data on, which we KNOW are missing large amounts of sales of major hardcover volumes and all the adventures.

 

[ECMO3]

Citation please? Because these numbers are wildly inaccurate.

The numbers for the 5E top 15 of Bookscan and 1E through 1999 come from a post by See earlier on this thread. Post 123.

The numbers for the 5E adventures comes from additional bookscan data I found online.

Here are all 3 links:

How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

How many copies do D&D's top products sell? We take a look at BookScan data and what it means for D&D and the hobby.

alphastream.org

D&D 5E’s Top-Selling Adventures and What It Means for the Hobby

D&D adventures historically don't sell well. 5E has tried several approaches. Let's take a look at 5E adventure sales in the BookScan data.

alphastream.org

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x4cdi3kcdcKG9bDXWyNu5QqwmNox0_kugC_ljJbqlj4/edit?gid=0#gid=0

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I hope you rated them and even put a few sentences into a review to help out the next potential buyer.

have not finished reading the last one but it is a good idea. I am usually terrible at reviews

 

[Parmandur]

Yes a very high fraction, estimated to be 75%.

Mark those 5E numbers up 33%, including the adventures, including the 5E cookbook and including the 5E DMs Screen and they are STILL lower than the 1E reported sales on the relatively few books and sets we have data on, which we KNOW are missing large amounts of sales of major hardcover volumes and all the adventures.

Nope, that's what bookscan normally represents, but in the case of D&D they represent a far, far smaller chunk. @Alphastream did the math on it in his blog, and it seems these are closer to a third or fourth of the actual 5E total book dales (recall, book scan misses out on all FLGS), and Ray Winninger actually said on Twitter he was on the right track.