D&D 5E (2024) Is WOTC done publishing campaigns?

HatWearingFool · 2026-02-05T21:09:06+0000

Also I just want to say that if you had told 90’s me that someone would sell out Madison Square Garden for people to watch a game of D&D I would have laughed in your face.

I can’t imagine someone not thinking D&D has a bigger base now than it did in 80’s and 90’s.

Edit: 80’s/90’s me would have also laughed at the concept of eSports, but here we are.

mamba · 2026-02-05T21:09:30+0000

GreyLord said:
I present the last few pages of this thread as evidence of the exact thing I stated would happen.

That is a trivial prediction to make, and it doesn’t prove you right on your actual claim

mamba · 2026-02-05T21:14:24+0000

HatWearingFool said:
Like I said his schools D&D club is running multiple groups from boxed sets that were more or less donated by some of us parents. That’s a lot of kids playing who didn’t buy anything, probably won’t buy anything for sometime, and won’t have beyond accounts.

But they are still fans. The cliche of the DM being the only person buying books is a cliche for a reason. There are a lot of players at a lot of tables that don’t own anything for sometime of the books.

so change the cliche to the players do not buy anything, which is what ‘the DM buys everything’ is about anyway, and it still holds

HatWearingFool · 2026-02-05T21:26:04+0000

mamba said:
so change the cliche to the players do not buy anything, which is what ‘the DM buys everything’ is about anyway, and it still holds

I’m sure WOTC has done survey’s but I wonder what percentage of players don’t buy anything?

And I don’t mean how many people are pirating the material, just how many flat out don’t have any of the content?

mamba · 2026-02-05T22:00:44+0000

HatWearingFool said:
I’m sure WOTC has done survey’s but I wonder what percentage of players don’t buy anything?

I have no idea, I assume the majority. It’s even built into DDB where you can share the products you purchased with your group (good move to, so the printed books have no advantage)

Don’t think I have seen any data on this…

SkidAce · 2026-02-05T22:33:36+0000

Ruin Explorer said:
The US population in 1980 was 226m
The US population in 2026 is 341m

That's about a 50% increase in population. So a 50% increase in sales would be matching sales.

Previous "best guess" estimates (I believe based on figures from Ben Riggs, who is a legitimate researcher and author) on how many copies the 2014 1E PHB sold is about 6m copies between 2014 and 2024. This does not appear to include digital sales nor does it include the 2024 edition (AFAICT).

The 1E PHB sold 1.5m copies (also I believe Ben Riggs figures) between 1979 and 1990 (it was replaced by the 2E PHB in 1989).

So accounting for population in the US (and we can assume that roughly even outs worldwide), it still looks like the 5E PHB sold about 3x as well as the 1E PHB.

There are complicating factors, of course, like the sales of other versions of D&D in the 1980s, but those are at least matched by the complications of things like 5E having both multiple starter sets and completely free versions available online.

Thanks!

Zardnaar · 2026-02-05T23:15:25+0000

Ruin Explorer said:
The US population in 1980 was 226m
The US population in 2026 is 341m

That's about a 50% increase in population. So a 50% increase in sales would be matching sales.

Previous "best guess" estimates (I believe based on figures from Ben Riggs, who is a legitimate researcher and author) on how many copies the 2014 1E PHB sold is about 6m copies between 2014 and 2024. This does not appear to include digital sales nor does it include the 2024 edition (AFAICT).

The 1E PHB sold 1.5m copies (also I believe Ben Riggs figures) between 1979 and 1990 (it was replaced by the 2E PHB in 1989).

So accounting for population in the US (and we can assume that roughly even outs worldwide), it still looks like the 5E PHB sold about 3x as well as the 1E PHB.

There are complicating factors, of course, like the sales of other versions of D&D in the 1980s, but those are at least matched by the complications of things like 5E having both multiple starter sets and completely free versions available online.

6 million is a common estimate. Some people were throwing around X10 or x100.

Its not 15 or 150 million.

mamba · 2026-02-06T04:15:31+0000

Zardnaar said:
6 million is a common estimate. Some people were throwing around X10 or x100.

Its not 15 or 150 million.

it doesn’t need 10x sales to have 10x current / peak players vs whatever 1e had at its peak

One difference is 5e was a ‘slow’ rise while 1e was a fast decline

Zardnaar · 2026-02-06T04:32:46+0000

mamba said:
it doesn’t need 10x sales to have 10x current / peak players vs whatever 1e had at its peak

One difference is 5e was a ‘slow’ rise while 1e was a fast decline

Yeah im talking about hard numbers.

WotCs very cagey about that. I suspect i know why otherwise they would be shouting it from the rooftops.

Its all about impressions, hope, marketing.

Insert D&D is doomed, wotc kicked my cat.

mamba · 2026-02-06T04:40:06+0000

Zardnaar said:
Yeah im talking about hard numbers.

WotCs very cagey about that. I suspect i know why otherwise they would be shouting it from the rooftops.

you do not have hard number of players for 1e or 5e, you may have hard number of PHB sales for 1e, but that is about it

I am not sure why WotC is cagey outside of a ‘it is always better to have some wiggle room’ approach, I however doubt that 1e sales have anything to do with it

D&D 5E (2024) Is WOTC done publishing campaigns?

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