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.

 

[mamba]

Ballpark youre looking at a couple of million phb plus digital plus a few more joining the million plus club.

Could be higher than that as well. I dont think its 10 million phb.

no, it’s not 10M PHB 2014, but 6-7M is in line with the around 1.6M that Bookscan is aware of.

The factor of 10+ is for the 2024 books, not 2014

 

[Zardnaar]

no, it’s not 10M PHB 2014, but 6-7M is in line with the around 1.6M that Bookscan is aware of.

The factor of 10+ is for the 2024 books, not 2014

Yeah 6-7 million seems a common number thrown around.

 

[EthanSental]

I’ve had Glicker on my do not recommend list on youtube for long while now…good to see I’m still not missing out on any click bait thumbnail he posts.

 

[pumasleeve]

And I don't think they were to serious.

 

[pumasleeve]

And I don't think they were to serious.

I was being a little hyperbolic. basically what im getting at is it seems that the inspiration for new adventures came largely from "lets do 5E version of..." Ravenloft. against the giants, descent into the depths, temple of elemental evil, tomb of horrors... from which we got curse of strahd, storm kings, out of the abyss, princes, tomb, etc. many containing maps and characters from the original. In fact it is directly stated as such in the adventures themselves.

I believe wotc has said that they played a lot of 1st edition while making 5 and it served as an influence more than 4th or 3rd ed.

As far as rulesets are concerned, 5E is definitely very different from basic or ad&d. OTOH... something like DCC is generally considered to be an OSR product and i would say its rules are at least as removed as 5 if not more... so its rather subjective.

But more importantly im not saying there is anything wrong with any of that. I like 5. I like many of the adventures, especially Curse of Strahd was excellently crafted.

 

[Parmandur]

I was being a little hyperbolic. basically what im getting at is it seems that the inspiration for new adventures came largely from "lets do 5E version of..." Ravenloft. against the giants, descent into the depths, temple of elemental evil, tomb of horrors... from which we got curse of strahd, storm kings, out of the abyss, princes, tomb, etc. many containing maps and characters from the original. In fact it is directly stated as such in the adventures themselves.

I believe wotc has said that they played a lot of 1st edition while making 5 and it served as an influence more than 4th or 3rd ed.

As far as rulesets are concerned, 5E is definitely very different from basic or ad&d. OTOH... something like DCC is generally considered to be an OSR product and i would say its rules are at least as removed as 5 if not more... so its rather subjective.

But more importantly im not saying there is anything wrong with any of that. I like 5. I like many of the adventures, especially Curse of Strahd was excellently crafted.

I think it is pretty clear that the D&D design team were aware of and taking on the ideas of the OSR when rethinking D&D for 5E.

Notably, Mike Mearls first gig as a game designer was with Goodman Games, designing for the d20 Dungeon Crawl Classics line.