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.

 

[Superchunk77]

I mean, "repurposed 1st ed material" can mean so many things. Like using polyhedral dice; and classes; and levels; and races separate from class.

I am reminded of the ongoing conversation of whether a hot dog is a sandwich? Is a taco a sandwich? Is a sandwich a taco? Yes to all the above, for certain criteria. Same with is 5e pretty much like 1e? Yes, for certain criteria.

I was more referring to the calling 5e an OSR product being nonsense.

 

[AlViking]

I was more referring to the calling 5e an OSR product being nonsense.

Then it's good that @pumasleeve didn't say that, they said "could almost be considered".

 

[Zardnaar]

Then it's good that @pumasleeve didn't say that, they said "could almost be considered".

And I don't think they were to serious.

 

[TrainedMunkee]

I said outright lie.

Misleading draw your own conclusions. I dont think theyre lying about financial details.

They didn't outright lie, they probably mislead. Most CEOs do at these things, they would like to keep their jobs. That they didn't present any glowing numbers, that says a lot.

D&D books have never been WoTC's flagship product, so not sure if they are worried about income from them or not, but if they are, then many at WotC are working furiously on 6e.

 

[Arilyn]

I'm assuming '24 is doing really well. The suits might have been unrealistically expecting a bigger splash, if they gave D&D much thought at all. This might be the reason for the spin.

 

[Mark Craddock]

D&D 5e 2024 is absolutely selling great. I fully believe that anyone who claims otherwise is... let's say, using "wishful thinking".

That said, I have to admit, that I'm starting to agree with @Mark Craddock. I'll explain:

When I first heard Mark make the claim (a long time ago now) that D&D Beyond was eating into his FLGS sales, I thought he was exaggerating. I'm used to Comics, where Digital has never made much of a dent on physical sales (if anything, it's helped to advertise). I hadn't noticed anything of the sort.

But I've started to notice it. It was particularly galling to me with the new Heroes of the Borderlands Starter - where my distributor had it for weeks, but wouldn't let me have mine until Release Day (which wasn't early for us FLGSes like things normally are) but then it seemed like everyone here were receiving theirs from D&D Beyond during the week leading up to release date.

Don't get me wrong here - my plan wasn't to break street date! It was to prepare for running it at launch!

So, DDB breaking street date themselves, while holding me to it to the letter was annoying, but the worse part was... the sales started off really slow. We've gone through a bunch of them BY NOW, but it really did seem for a bit there like "Everyone who wants it has it already" by the time I even got my own.

That was irksome.

But I admit, that the above complaint is more about how the whole thing made me feel, than something where I can fully track what the cause of the slow start was. I will say that the Starter is selling "Fine" but it is selling less than what I would have expected, and I believe (with no way of proving it) that it is probably due to DDB.

But the core books sold great at launch. In fact, they sold OUT at launch. It would have been nice for them to have been more readily available. There was a few week window at the beginning of the year where we didn't have one or the other of the core books, and we never received our full order on the Exclusive Covers (and if we'd know that would happen, we'd have compensated with more Regular Covers, so some warning would have been nice, too!)

The core books are, IMO, at my store, turning over at a nice regular pace - still higher than any other edition, including 2014 5e (except maybe at its peak near Christmas time, or something like that, but we'll see how 2024 books do near then...)

I don't think digital sales of comics impacts me in any way. Based on the data that I've seen digital comic sales for Marvel & DC account for the footprint of the major comic store in the NYC market.

Digital and RPGs & DnD are a different matter. I almost exclusively use PDFs & DND Beyond for all of my gaming.
My best selling RPGs right now are Shadowdark & Daggerheart. The 2024 line is third. I'm working on ways to improve that but ordering direct from DnD Beyond with the print package is a good deal and I've just had to accept that right now WotC is my competitor. Sadly, no matter how hard their employees work you never know when Hasbro will make a hard turn and shut down whatever initiative they have invested in no matter how foolish. Just look at the OGL fiasco occurring on the eve of the most recent DnD movie and the sale of eOne before Transformers Rise of the Beasts.

I should be clear this is all just how my market, between 2 stores in KY, is performing right now.

Beyond is where I got the 3 core rules books. Id definitely buy local if my area could support a FLGS. We just have Books a Million.

I had hoped getting the exclusive cover would help continue our sales, we'll see how things develop. Something else that I think varies by market is how many players choose to remain with 2014 if not permanently then until they finish a campaign. Looking over my data the Monster Manual is my bestseller of the 3 core books since release and it is the one I am restocking the fastest. I think this also supports groups sticking with 2014 but wanted a different monster book at their table.

 

[Mark Craddock]

D&D 5e 2024 is absolutely selling great. I fully believe that anyone who claims otherwise is... let's say, using "wishful thinking".

That said, I have to admit, that I'm starting to agree with @Mark Craddock. I'll explain:

When I first heard Mark make the claim (a long time ago now) that D&D Beyond was eating into his FLGS sales, I thought he was exaggerating. I'm used to Comics, where Digital has never made much of a dent on physical sales (if anything, it's helped to advertise). I hadn't noticed anything of the sort.

But I've started to notice it. It was particularly galling to me with the new Heroes of the Borderlands Starter - where my distributor had it for weeks, but wouldn't let me have mine until Release Day (which wasn't early for us FLGSes like things normally are) but then it seemed like everyone here were receiving theirs from D&D Beyond during the week leading up to release date.

Don't get me wrong here - my plan wasn't to break street date! It was to prepare for running it at launch!

So, DDB breaking street date themselves, while holding me to it to the letter was annoying, but the worse part was... the sales started off really slow. We've gone through a bunch of them BY NOW, but it really did seem for a bit there like "Everyone who wants it has it already" by the time I even got my own.

That was irksome.

But I admit, that the above complaint is more about how the whole thing made me feel, than something where I can fully track what the cause of the slow start was. I will say that the Starter is selling "Fine" but it is selling less than what I would have expected, and I believe (with no way of proving it) that it is probably due to DDB.

But the core books sold great at launch. In fact, they sold OUT at launch. It would have been nice for them to have been more readily available. There was a few week window at the beginning of the year where we didn't have one or the other of the core books, and we never received our full order on the Exclusive Covers (and if we'd know that would happen, we'd have compensated with more Regular Covers, so some warning would have been nice, too!)

The core books are, IMO, at my store, turning over at a nice regular pace - still higher than any other edition, including 2014 5e (except maybe at its peak near Christmas time, or something like that, but we'll see how 2024 books do near then...)

I don't think digital sales of comics impacts me in any way. Based on the data that I've seen digital comic sales for Marvel & DC account for the footprint of the major comic store in the NYC market.

Digital and RPGs & DnD are a different matter. I almost exclusively use PDFs & DND Beyond for all of my gaming.
My best selling RPGs right now are Shadowdark & Daggerheart. The 2024 line is third. I'm working on ways to improve that but ordering direct from DnD Beyond with the print package is a good deal and I've just had to accept that right now WotC is my competitor. Sadly, no matter how hard their employees work you never know when Hasbro will make a hard turn and shut down whatever initiative they have invested in no matter how foolish. Just look at the OGL fiasco occurring on the eve of the most recent DnD movie and the sale of eOne before Transformers Rise of the Beasts.

I should be clear this is all just how my market, between 2 stores in KY, is performing right now.

I don't doubt that Beyond is taking away interest from local stores. I hate that.
I'm frequently getting books from my local and getting ones with heavy player options from Beyond too.

That is what we do. Most of my players are DMs too so they order the exclusive cover from me and then we order them on DnD Beyond as well. DnD Beyond is a fantastic tool and I love having access to it. I can't blame anyone for ordering from that platform if they use it. It's one less headache...you place the order there and your files open up at release and your books show up at your door.

WotC is Hasbro's golden goose. They are going to exploit that and they have been dabbling with direct to consumer for years and years. I personally think it's only a matter of time before Hasbro & Mattel merge. As a toy collector Hasbro is a game maker that makes toys while Mattel is a toy company that makes games.


We've been opened since 1981, we know full well we have to be agile and adapt to changing markets. I won't lie I was pretty sore about my hypothesis that Beyond was stealing sales but that just means I have to adapt to the changes. It took a lot of energy and time to pave the way for Shadowdark becoming our best selling RPG this year and it reminded me that part of business model is developing community. Its introduced me to a number of new people which is always cool. I do think Shadowdark's success for us is because some people left 2014 or even 2024 for a streamlined option. Hopefully, I can continue to adapt and be here for another 40 years (the company). My in-laws opened it, my wife and I run it, and all 3 of my adult children work here which is pretty darn cool.