D&D (2024) 2024 Player’s Handbook is ‘Fastest Selling D&D Book Ever’

It’s only officially been out for a week, but according to Wizards of the Coast, the new Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook has already surpassed Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything to become the fastest selling D&D book ever—in the entire 50-year history of the game. It has sold three times as many copies as the 2014 version of the books did at launch.

Not only that, the 2024 Player’s Handbook was the biggest print run in D&D’s history.

In a press release today, WotC claims more than 85 million D&D fans worldwide, and says that D&D Beyond, the game’s official online platform, has over 18 million users.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

side question

@FitzTheRuke - what's your store called? I've forgotten...again...

/side question

Hourglass Comics & Games in Port Moody, BC, Canada (just outside Vancouver).

 

[Stormonu]

That sounds like a foolish retailer who is allowing their opinion of a product affect their support of it - at their customer's expense. It's a good way to not last in the long-term.

I'd 100% support this mentality if it were about some sort of actual exploitation on the part of WotC, like child-labour or criminal activity, but WotC's main "crimes" have been simply foolish PR blunders, for the most part, and I suspect that it's more likely that this retailer simply doesn't like the new rules, more than it's some kind of moral stance. (Though I admit that I don't know).

Had something similar to this happen back in the 4E days with a not-so-FLGS. They refused to carry Pathfinder due to the owner's preference. They held out until 4E essentials hit, and that apparently changed their mind.

It cost them my business, but they will not be missed.

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In current news, the local Books-a-Million still had 3 copies (it had 5 earlier in the week). I don't know if they pulled another stack from the back or not, but it doesn't seem to be moving fast down here. FLGS still has plenty of copies as well.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Had something similar to this happen back in the 4E days with a not-so-FLGS. They refused to carry Pathfinder due to the owner's preference. They held out until 4E essentials hit, and that apparently changed their mind.

It cost them my business, but they will not be missed.

Yeah, I never understand that sort of thing. I will carry whatever my customers ask for, assuming that I can get them. I might not have it on the shelf, depending on if we prioritized something else, or more often, because the distributor is out of it, but I'm happy to bring anything I can in for a customer who asks for it.

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In current news, the local Books-a-Million still had 3 copies (it had 5 earlier in the week). I don't know if they pulled another stack from the back or not, but it doesn't seem to be moving fast down here.

Yeah, that's pretty impossible to tell. It might be that they had 5 and sold 2 and now have 3, or it might be that they put out 10, you saw 5, and then they ran out and put out another 10, and you came in and saw 3, and who knows how many 10's in-between. Hard to say without asking them.

FLGS still has plenty of copies as well.

Not much to tell by that either, other than that they got more than they sold so far. They could have gotten 200 and are down to 50, where I got 70 and am out. I've mentioned before the strange phenomenon that had I ordered less, I'd still have them, because I would have started running out earlier, and I would have placed a reorder (assuming I placed a large enough reorder) while my distributor still had them. Instead, they ran out at exactly the same time I did. They had A LOT and I wasn't worried about them running out, until it was TOO LATE.

And that was because many stores underordered it, and needed reorder numbers (according to my distributor) that were larger than their initial orders. This is both them underestimating the demand, but it's also the demand being there. It would be unusual for them to underestimate a demand that is only small, though it's possible. It's much more likely that it's selling very well.

 

[Lanefan]

Not much to tell by that either, other than that they got more than they sold so far. They could have gotten 200 and are down to 50, where I got 70 and am out.

Any idea how many of those 70 went out during the week where the reported sales in total were 3773?

 

[Parmandur]

Any idea how many of those 70 went out during the week where the reported sales in total were 3773?

Irrelevant, because Bookscan is exclusively US sales, and doesn't include any game stores at all.

 

[KYRON45]

So are we calling this the "Bookscan Debacle"?

 

[Dr Magister]

So are we calling this the "Bookscan Debacle"?

How about just "Bookscan't"?

 

[Oofta]

So are we calling this the "Bookscan Debacle"?

You gotta dress it up a bit. It's Scandale Du Jour.

 

[Corinnguard]

You gotta dress it up a bit. It's Scandale Du Jour.

For that we'll need a very charismatic Bard. Know where we can find one?

 

[bedir than]

So are we calling this the "Bookscan Debacle"?

I wouldn't blame them for how someone uses their data