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.

 

[Planescape]

I'd say D&D is easily 10x more popular than it was 10 years ago so this tracks

 

[GreyLord]

I wouldn’t be surprised if digital is included in that count. But note that the number of Tasha’s sold from previous, likely more valid, bookscan data was the floor of the number of actual books sold. By a lot. I don’t remember how much it was estimated to be low.

So it’s still probably a lot of real books. Maybe.

Even without Digital sales I think the number that the PHB is the fastest selling is probably legit.

I may question some of the other numbers, but I don't have any difficulty believing that.

HOWEVER, part of that is probably not looking at the numbers that have sold through, but at the numbers sold (as in sent via the distributor to shops and such). I don't know if WotC has a way to track the exact numbers sold by shops and such (as I don't think every FLGS actually report back which book numbers were sold, but estimates can be made from when they order more that they sold the others that they had previously). The numbers sent out were probably pretty darn high. Just on pre-orders alone they probably could have hit the fastest selling PHB of all time easily in the first week of the Deluxe version's sales...IMO of course.

 

[Zardnaar]

Even without Digital sales I think the number that the PHB is the fastest selling is probably legit.

I may question some of the other numbers, but I don't have any difficulty believing that.

HOWEVER, part of that is probably not looking at the numbers that have sold through, but at the numbers sold (as in sent via the distributor to shops and such). I don't know if WotC has a way to track the exact numbers sold by shops and such (as I don't think every FLGS actually report back which book numbers were sold, but estimates can be made from when they order more that they sold the others that they had previously). The numbers sent out were probably pretty darn high. Just on pre-orders alone they probably could have hit the fastest selling PHB of all time easily in the first week of the Deluxe version's sales...IMO of course.

Thing is it's not that big a flex. Markets 10 times bigger than 2014. 4E didn't sell that well and 4E outsold 3E on pre orders apparently (not overall).

The older editions were slow burns and blew up years after release. 2E and 3.5 didn't do that well comparatively.

Leaves 4E really and it looks like 5E has outsold 4E 8 or 10 to one maybe more.

Tbh it woukd be more surprising if 2024 wasn't the fastest selling phb of all time

 

[Sulicius]

Thing is it's not that big a flex. Markets 10 times bigger than 2014. 4E didn't sell that well and 4E outsold 3E on pre orders apparently (not overall).

The older editions were slow burns and blew up years after release. 2E and 3.5 didn't do that well comparatively.

Leaves 4E really and it looks like 5E has outsold 4E 8 or 10 to one maybe more.

Tbh it woukd be more surprising if 2024 wasn't the fastest selling phb of all time

Of course! But I have seen many people argue that D&D is out of its golden age, dwindling, losing touch with consumers, and more.

Whatever WotC is doing wrong, they are clearly doing something right.

 

[mamba]

HOWEVER, part of that is probably not looking at the numbers that have sold through, but at the numbers sold (as in sent via the distributor to shops and such).

is that how they reported sales in the past?

To me that is not really a sale. Sure, the distributor has them, but they could have clogged the pipeline for a whole year before needing new books compared to selling out in two weeks and reordering right away, so this is more about how well they expected the book to sell to the consumer than about actual sales.

To me that would count as shipped, not as sold, but of course that does not have the same ring to it, so maybe WotC embellished that

 

[Oofta]

is that how they reported sales in the past?

To me that is not really a sale. Sure, the distributor has them, but they could have clogged the pipeline for a whole year before needing new books compared to selling out in two weeks and reordering right away, so this is more about how well they expected the book to sell to the consumer than about actual sales.

To me that would count as shipped, not as sold, but of course that does not have the same ring to it, so maybe WotC embellished that

Based on what people have been saying, the books sent to the stores are selling out quickly and stores are having to reorder. We also don't know how they record sales to stores, but I rather doubt they have the crap record keeping that TSR had.

 

[mamba]

Based on what people have been saying, the books sent to the stores are selling out quickly

I did not mean to imply that the book is not selling, I have no doubt it is the fastest selling one. Anything else is next to impossible

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Of course! But I have seen many people argue that D&D is out of its golden age, dwindling, losing touch with consumers, and more.

Those predictions always come down to people extrapolating what's going on with their group to the consumer base as a whole.

 

[mamba]

Those predictions always come to people extrapolating what's going on with their group to the consumer base as a whole.

I don’t know, I do assume its sales were slowing. The WotC D&D numbers in their quarterly reports barely grew despite making record money from the BG3 license, and coming down a bit after Covid would not really be all that surprising either.

Not sure if you want to qualify that as nearing / coming to the end of its golden age. I only heard Ben Riggs say that after the OGL debacle.

Either way there are other reasons to than just your home group growing tired of it. Whether they are good reasons is another topic (but they beat your home group as a reason at least)

 

[Parmandur]

is that how they reported sales in the past?

To me that is not really a sale. Sure, the distributor has them, but they could have clogged the pipeline for a whole year before needing new books compared to selling out in two weeks and reordering right away, so this is more about how well they expected the book to sell to the consumer than about actual sales.

To me that would count as shipped, not as sold, but of course that does not have the same ring to it, so maybe WotC embellished that

Dunno about WotC specifically, but it is pretty normal for companies that sell to distributors to count that as the sale (because that is when they get the money). Nintendo, for instance, counts sales to distributors in their public reports, not end customer sales, for that reason.

Of course, when theybsell out to distributors, and distributors are actively taking back-orders from retailers...suggests sell-through is going well.