D&D (2024) 2024 Player’s Handbook is ‘Fastest Selling D&D Book Ever’

It’s only officially been out for a week, but according to Wizards of the Coast, the new Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook has already surpassed Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything to become the fastest selling D&D book ever—in the entire 50-year history of the game. It has sold three times as many copies as the 2014 version of the books did at launch.

Not only that, the 2024 Player’s Handbook was the biggest print run in D&D’s history.

In a press release today, WotC claims more than 85 million D&D fans worldwide, and says that D&D Beyond, the game’s official online platform, has over 18 million users.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

He was standing. right. behind. you. as you were looking at the shelf.

I immediately thought of Sam Reich on Game Changers: "And me? I've been here the whole time."

 

[Velderan]

I absolutely like your logical train of thought, but it isn't likely given what we've seen historically. We on ENWorld and gaming internet in general live in a real bubble where we see very clear repeated patterns of how folks buy things, such as on D&D Beyond. But for D&D, the audience is vastly bigger than our bubble. There are folks constantly walking past store aisles, coming in to gaming stores, shopping online. D&D is a game with global shipping and distribution schedules. The scale of it is enormously beyond what we see. Most sales, historically, come from outside the patterns of buying we see.

For sure, digital sales are a new thing. But in the vast D&D market, the number of folks who have even been to the D&D Beyond website is likely very small. When I would visit gaming stores around the country in the first few years of 5E, maybe one in six D&D players had been to the D&D web site. Fewer than that were engaged in anything forums/social online.

While everything you mentioned is true (digital sales, FLGS sales, bundles) and a factor in sales, it is inconceivable for those factors to so profoundly impact the BookScan side of things (we haven't seen such a change for previous 5E books, even during the D&D Beyond digital era). That's why folks who understand BookScan tend to think that the numbers being reported are inaccurate for some reason.

I am sure you’re right that I overestimated how much those 3 things have impacted sales, though I should clarify I think the delayed/missing Amazon sales are a much more significant factor than the 3 things I bullet pointed and probably should have made that point clear.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

1 in 5 “fans”, but I’m talking actual players of the RPG.

I wonder when we're talking 'fans' versus 'players', how many of the fans are people who buy the book, and hope against hope to somehow find a group to play with? That seems pretty common, reading reddit, a lot of posts are about 'I've never played and want to find a group'.

 

[Mistwell]

This is what Bookscan includes in its numbers if you are curious. It does include Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BJs, Books-A-Million, Costco, Gamestop, Sam's Club, Target, Walmart, and 800 independent bookstores (among others).

Circana BookScan Data Providers | Publishers Marketplace

i believe all of those have it listed as a toy this time around (Amazon), or have not even received their copies yet (all the rest you listed), so not being picked up as a book sale for either case. I am pretty sure (though not positive) the bookscan number was the number submitted by WOTC themselves as the combined quantity of books WOTC sold at GenCon (I don't think they do same-day reporting for GenCon sales, it comes later) plus the quantity they sent as reviewer copies.. That's it.

For the week in question, it was only available at FLGS's. Which are not picked up by Bookscan.

Now that it's being listed in the Toy category, I think a lot of our numbers counting from the outside will be messed up.

 

[darjr]

Facepalm.

It’s nice to get the validation of the Amazon ranking numbers.

But Stephen, the issue is it isn’t really categorized in any categories for ranking at all. If it was it’d have a rank at the page. It doesn’t. And that’s why it ain’t showing up in any page that shows products by rank.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I wonder when we're talking 'fans' versus 'players', how many of the fans are people who buy the book, and hope against hope to somehow find a group to play with? That seems pretty common, reading reddit, a lot of posts are about 'I've never played and want to find a group'.

There's a lot of variety
People who play F2F who don't buy any books (I think this number is HUGE).
People who buy books who never get to play (smaller, but still large).
People who buy and play with physical books.
People who buy and play with DDB/Fantasy Grounds/etc
People who play with other people's DDB accounts.
Etc, etc.

 

[Mistwell]

The Player's Handbook 2024 was not categorized as a toy on Amazon.com. It's actually under the same listing as the 2014 book. You can see it for yourself here.

I believe Mike Mearls confirmed we would not be seeing Amazon numbers this time around due to a behind-the-scenes change WOTC made in their submission. That's what people are calling the Toy category. But as you can see, Amazon is no longer listing the book in the book bestseller lists, for any category. They don't seem to be tracking it as a book.

 

[darjr]

Also it’s the first thing that shows up at Barnes & Noble when I search for a PHB.

Finally the 2014 PHB had LESS than that many reviews in its first week at Amazon. I’ll post the way back link when I get a chance.

 

[bedir than]

Roll for Combat's update...

"You can't even find it on Barnes & Noble"

 

[mamba]

We ha numbers, and I see nonreasom to doubt the 1 in 5 ratio thst WotC number suggests.

WotC is talking about fans and I see no reason to equate fans and players

In my experience, most players don't buy a PHB, and I think the historical sales data support that, with the PHB consistency outselling the DMG by only 2 to 1 across decades and corporate regimes.

I agree, but how many players per PHB? is that your 1 to 5 ratio? At 7M PHB that would get us to 35M players, which is almost double the 18M from DDB…