2024 D&D Core Rulebooks Off to "Strongest-Ever" Start for D&D Books

Dungeons & Dragons got a rare shoutout during Hasbro's 3rd quarter earnings report, with Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks stating that the 2024 Core Rulebooks were off to a record start. Today, Hasbro released its third quarter 2025 earnings report, with Wizards of the Coast propping up the overall revenue for the company. Wizards of the Coast is up 33% YTD, with Magic: The Gathering having a 40% jump compared to last year. However, Cocks also called out Dungeons & Dragons in his comments, speaking to both the Core Rulebooks and D&D Beyond's Maps VTT.

Cocks' full comments (which are admittedly very brief) can be found below:

The refreshed 2024 editions of D&D’s Monster Manual, Players Handbook, and DM Guide are off to the strongest-ever start for D&D books. D&DBEYOND’S new, accessible virtual tabletop has driven weekly traffic up nearly 50% since its September launch.

Hasbro is having a good year, with total revenue up 7% compared to last year. Wizards is expected to be up 36-38% for 2025, largely due to the performance of Magic: The Gathering.

 

[Parmandur]

Do we have any idea how good the penetration is? As in, how many 2014 players have adopted 2024?

No, and Hasbro/WotC probavly doesn't care that much. They care that active D&D Beyond users have gone from about 10 million before the OGL crisis to 21 million as of July.

Grognards playing 2014 (lol) are still going to be interested in a Behold Mr. Potatoehead or a t-shirt with Tyler Jacobson art on it, so a total uptake is not necessarily a financial goal the same way attracting new 12-24 players is.

 

[Reynard]

No, and Hasbro/WotC probavly doesn't care that much. They care that active D&D Beyond users have gone from about 10 million before the OGL crisis to 21 million as of July.

I legit wonder how many paid subscribers there are.

Grognards playing 2014 (lol) are still going to be interested in a Behold Mr. Potatoehead or a t-shirt with Tyler Jacobson art on it, so a total uptake is not necessarily a financial goal the same way attracting new 12-24 players is.

I literally LOLed at 2014 Grognards.

Anyway, my guess is that they care enough to try some form of course correction if in 2 years new adoption is cratering. The irony, of course, would be that the 2024 edition might have nothing to do with that, if it occurs. Nothing grows forever, especially that fast, and a slowdown or even crash is inevitable.

 

[Parmandur]

I legit wonder how many paid subscribers there are.

Who knows, but as a rule, in these things there is a pretty steady of % to paying money: if you have 1 million users, then get a million more, the amount of money will simply double.

 

[FrogReaver]

They always have to present in a good light, if they like their job. It's what they didn't say that matters.

They made a weak comparisons to 2014 sales. I don't have exact numbers, but they should be selling many, many more copies of the 2024 book than the 2014 book, in the comparison of launches. There is no realistic comparison between the customer base of D&D in 2014 and the customer base of D&D in 2024. This means they didn't have any good numbers to present.

I am not saying that D&D 2024 is bad. It isn't. From a fan viewpoint. From a corp viewpoint, they are cutting and cutting to save money. From a corp viewpoint they should have launched a new edition. As a fan of the game, I am glad they didn't.

D&D has never been the bread winner and should never be from a fan viewpoint. Corps tend to kill creativity.

Exactly, corp speak is much more about deciphering what would they have wanted to say if they could have. Generally they want to say whatever paints them in the most favorable light, so if something obvious isn't said that's usually a very bad sign.

 

[TrainedMunkee]

No, and Hasbro/WotC probavly doesn't care that much. They care that active D&D Beyond users have gone from about 10 million before the OGL crisis to 21 million as of July.

Grognards playing 2014 (lol) are still going to be interested in a Behold Mr. Potatoehead or a t-shirt with Tyler Jacobson art on it, so a total uptake is not necessarily a financial goal the same way attracting new 12-24 players is.

Exactly Hasbro could care less about penetration of a new rule set. They care about profit.

The real question is how many of the 21 million are actually buying books or pay for a sub? I am only guessing but they probably make more off the IP. In todays world capture is the name of the game, hence why my D&D Beyond emails advertise much more than D&D books.

Attract new customers while maintaining customer base. I think I learned that in BUS 101.

 

[EthanSental]

They always have to present in a good light, if they like their job. It's what they didn't say that matters.

They made a weak comparisons to 2014 sales. I don't have exact numbers, but they should be selling many, many more copies of the 2024 book than the 2014 book, in the comparison of launches. There is no realistic comparison between the customer base of D&D in 2014 and the customer base of D&D in 2024. This means they didn't have any good numbers to present.

I am not saying that D&D 2024 is bad. It isn't. From a fan viewpoint. From a corp viewpoint, they are cutting and cutting to save money. From a corp viewpoint they should have launched a new edition. As a fan of the game, I am glad they didn't.

D&D has never been the bread winner and should never be from a fan viewpoint. Corps tend to kill creativity.

I might be off in what is meant by the very last sentence as it related to D&D and creativity of Wotc/hasbro as a corp but player feedback drove design choices for the 5e and 5.5 version…so I don’t see a corp killing creativity if the high selling game was based on the players wants in game. Maybe in general if that’s the view point being present but not for 5e/5.5e…to me.

Edit and it does say tend and not always

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm not at the store now, but if people are interested, I could look up lifetime 2014 PHB (or other books) vs current 2024 PHB sales.

Obviously, it won't reflect the industry as a whole (but then again, my store is generally pretty "average" - for a tiny store in a Canadian suburb).

 

[FrogReaver]

I'm not at the store now, but if people are interested, I could look up lifetime 2014 PHB (or other books) vs current 2024 PHB sales.

Obviously, it won't reflect the industry as a whole (but then again, my store is generally pretty "average" - for a tiny store in a Canadian suburb).

That’d be really cool.

 

[Parmandur]

The real question is how many of the 21 million are actually buying books or pay for a sub?

I mean, even if it is a small percentage of 21 million, they are probably doing OK on that, probably way more money than they made in D&D in prior decades.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not at the store now, but if people are interested, I could look up lifetime 2014 PHB (or other books) vs current 2024 PHB sales.

Obviously, it won't reflect the industry as a whole (but then again, my store is generally pretty "average" - for a tiny store in a Canadian suburb).

Heck yeah, even one idiosyncratic example would ne great conversation fodder, even if we cannot discern the Ultimate TRVTH about D&D finances.