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.

 

[Parmandur]

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

Fan is probavly a more stable number than player, week to week. And ultimately the more important number for selling pwl bear plusses and beholder tshirts.

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…

Who knows? A given PHB can be used by more than one group, particularly if a DM has multiple groups of, say, middle schoolers.

 

[Parmandur]

18* 5 is 90M, more than the 85M fans, so I’d say we can discard that one

18 million is ~21.11764% of 86 million. So I rounded, 1 in 5 give or take.

Those are the numbers we have, and they both seem entirely reasonable.

 

[Parmandur]

I’m think we can stop doing made up maths.

The Drake Equation doesn’t work here. When you multiply multiple made-up numbers with each other you end up with a very big made-up number. All these ‘calculations’ are completely pointless.

Well, 18 million account holders and 86 million fans come from WotC, and I don't think they made them up. So 1 out of 5 "fans", however they figure that (and Inam sure they have their methods) bother to get a free or paid Beyond account. The gap probably has tens of millions of distinct reasons.

 

[Jimmy Dick]

I think Glicker is full of crap regarding the sales of the PHB. To say that WotC only sold less than 4k of the book is just silly. That book is moving copies at every game store in my area...which is a rural region. I'm at a con right now and the folks from the larger urban areas are saying the book has sold well there.

 

[Kronius]

I’m not shooting the messenger, just have an issue with the interpretation of what that number means.

And things happen, even bookscan could flub or miss numbers or not get all of the same sources between Tasha’s and PHB 2024.

he just keeps pointing to Bookscan like it is the holy grail of numbers reporting when he knows it is not. He just is biased and wants to ignore that the 2024 PHB sold very well.

So lets ignore ALL the sales from FLGS out there or the fact they sold 3k copies at Gencon alone.

 

[Jimmy Dick]

Let's face facts here. Glicker is only trying to generate clicks for his channel with this stuff. He's done it before and will do it again.

 

[bedir than]

Reading author advice websites, there's a generally recognized problem with Bookscan data being a week behind.

Also, per @Alphastream the Tasha's FIRST MONTH numbers were 125k, not the 133k that Glicker is claiming

D&D 5E’s Top-Selling Settings, Sourcebooks, and Accessories

How do the sales of D&D 5E settings, sourcebooks, and accessories compare to adventures? Let’s take a look at the BookScan data and find out.

alphastream.org

 

[Morrus]

Well, 18 million account holders and 86 million fans come from WotC, and I don't think they made them up. So 1 out of 5 "fans", however they figure that (and Inam sure they have their methods) bother to get a free or paid Beyond account. The gap probably has tens of millions of distinct reasons.

It’s the maths that’s made up. Which is why I said maths. If I’d meant WotC’s numbers were made up I’d have said WitC’s numbers. But I didn’t say WotC’s numbers. I said maths. Hopefully it’s clearer now I’ve said maths like 22 times.

 

[Kronius]

I think Glicker is full of crap regarding the sales of the PHB. To say that WotC only sold less than 4k of the book is just silly. That book is moving copies at every game store in my area...which is a rural region. I'm at a con right now and the folks from the larger urban areas are saying the book has sold well there.

the books have sold out at a few stores in the suburbs of Chicago

 

[Morrus]

Let's face facts here. Glicker is only trying to generate clicks for his channel with this stuff. He's done it before and will do it again.

Yeah, and I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable enabling it. It’s not like he even credits this thread in his latest video — he’s just countering ‘some comments online’ - while using it as his proxy YouTube comments. If we’re not worth crediting, why should we credit—or proliferate—his videos?

I’m very much considering a prohibition on YouTube videos being posted without commentary. If you can’t type it. It doesn’t need to be on a discussion forum.

How about this, @Stonesnake — if you’re using us as your YouTube comments section then acknowledge that in your videos. Or we won’t talk about you. We’re not your YouTube comments section and we’re not here just to make clicks for you. It’s just basic courtesy. Deal?