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.

 

[Scribe]

Obfuscate the disappointments, underscore the triumphs.

Exactly. Anyone who has helped prepare earnings statements (hi!) knows this.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yep it is weird and regional. My local FLGS can't keep the 2024 PHB in stock. It took my about 8 months after launch to get a hand on one!

Something similar here. Couldn't get them now everyone as them and.

 

[TerraDave]

.

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!)

This reminded me that there have been parts of the world were it has been extremely hard to get the 2024 core books (where you could get 2014 books and other gaming stuff). The books are also barely discounted on Amazon. Both imply they are scarce and hence have sold well.

Edit: just had like 3 posts saying basically the same thing.

 

[mamba]

The books are also barely discounted on Amazon. Both imply they are scarce and hence have sold well.

no that is because WotC changed category from book to game, specifically to not have the steep book discounts

 

[TerraDave]

no that is because WotC changed category from book to game, specifically to not have the steep book discounts

"No". Ok. Do you have a quote for this? On the rationale for the switch. Or its just the authoritative "no".

I was able to confirm in about 2 minutes that in fact there are discounted games on Amazon and full price books.

 

[mamba]

No". Ok. Do you have a quote for this? On the rationale for the switch. Or its just the authoritative "no".

I do not have a quote for you, but it had been mentioned a few times on these forums. I also doubt WotC would publicly say that this was the rationale for the recategorization

Let’s turn this around, can you think of another reason for it, let alone a better one?

 

[Parmandur]

"No". Ok. Do you have a quote for this? On the rationale for the switch. Or its just the authoritative "no".

I was able to confirm in about 2 minutes that in fact there are discounted games on Amazon and full price books.

We did confirm that Hasbro re-catagorized the d&D books as games on Amazon, and separately it was confirmed they had done something logistically behind the scenes to stop Amazon from undermining MSRP...now that they do direct sales.

Now, it might not be that those two behind the scenes things were related...but they may be.

 

[GreyLord]

On numbers, the general rule I've been told is to take the number of Players stated and divide that by 5. Hence, it is generaly 1 PHB per 5 players as an estimate.

This is one reason early on I questioned some of the numbers WotC/Hasbro were releasing (and for a while, they cut back on the PR bS they were spouting, and instead of claiming 25 million playing 5e, it was 25 million fans of D&D...letting one infer what they wanted (whether that meant through the lifetime of D&D, or were currently playing 5e, etc).

My thought was that with some of their statements at the time they were claiming 5e was more popular than the Xbox console sold in stores...etc...and brought how that looked and how that wouldn't actually drive businessmen and businesses to invest in HAS when it seemed like they were lying on their receipts and such. So...the wording changed...slightly... (or someone else also brought it up, or they caught it themselves and decided it needed modification...however it occurred, the wording changed just enough so that it wasn't seen as an out and out dishonesty, or possibly dishonesty).

That said, an estimate of 25-30 million players who have at least tried out 5e (in addition to the other millions who played other editions which when one adds everything up...sort of can be assumed near 50 million from what I've been told) means around 5 million copies of 2014 were sold in some way with the 5:1 rule.

The problem comes in when digital versions are introduced. This makes actual numbers in relation to 4e, and the now current 2024 5e (and late 2014 5e) harder to figure out. Digital doesn't follow that same trend and I'm not sure of what forumula may be utilized in that fashion. It may be that they only do a 1:1 relationship with D&D beyond, meaning they only count one as a fan if they have an account and played in a game (in which case a 1:1 relation matches...or would seem to match reality). The problem with that of course is that some of those will be duplicates of those who play on TT as well...so they cannibalize each other for numbers...

Which is why the only ones that probably truly know the approximate numbers buying and playing D&D currently as well as 2024's release are the actuaries (whose numbers are used) given to managers who then drive forward some of the sales ideas in regards to what to put the investments in next.

 

[Zardnaar]

On numbers, the general rule I've been told is to take the number of Players stated and divide that by 5. Hence, it is generaly 1 PHB per 5 players as an estimate.

This is one reason early on I questioned some of the numbers WotC/Hasbro were releasing (and for a while, they cut back on the PR bS they were spouting, and instead of claiming 25 million playing 5e, it was 25 million fans of D&D...letting one infer what they wanted (whether that meant through the lifetime of D&D, or were currently playing 5e, etc).

My thought was that with some of their statements at the time they were claiming 5e was more popular than the Xbox console sold in stores...etc...and brought how that looked and how that wouldn't actually drive businessmen and businesses to invest in HAS when it seemed like they were lying on their receipts and such. So...the wording changed...slightly... (or someone else also brought it up, or they caught it themselves and decided it needed modification...however it occurred, the wording changed just enough so that it wasn't seen as an out and out dishonesty, or possibly dishonesty).

That said, an estimate of 25-30 million players who have at least tried out 5e (in addition to the other millions who played other editions which when one adds everything up...sort of can be assumed near 50 million from what I've been told) means around 5 million copies of 2014 were sold in some way with the 5:1 rule.

The problem comes in when digital versions are introduced. This makes actual numbers in relation to 4e, and the now current 2024 5e (and late 2014 5e) harder to figure out. Digital doesn't follow that same trend and I'm not sure of what forumula may be utilized in that fashion. It may be that they only do a 1:1 relationship with D&D beyond, meaning they only count one as a fan if they have an account and played in a game (in which case a 1:1 relation matches...or would seem to match reality). The problem with that of course is that some of those will be duplicates of those who play on TT as well...so they cannibalize each other for numbers...

Which is why the only ones that probably truly know the approximate numbers buying and playing D&D currently as well as 2024's release are the actuaries (whose numbers are used) given to managers who then drive forward some of the sales ideas in regards to what to put the investments in next.

5 millions getting close to a lot of estimates from what I've seen.

My personal one is extremely low end around 2 million up to maybe 6 million phb sold.

Based on other stuff like peak 5E, market size.

And those numbers could br wrong as well.

Active players could be lower as well which would be towards lower end. Ive seen 12 million bandied about.

 

[AlViking]

So wait ... now we're guessing at the number of players, assuming that only the DM buys the PHB (not my experience) to prove ... what exactly?

The stretches to create negative spin is entertaining in a way I suppose.