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.

 

[OptionalRule]

Does it seem wierd to anyone else that they're using a soure book as a benchmark for a core book?

 

[Hussar]

Does it seem wierd to anyone else that they're using a soure book as a benchmark for a core book?

No, because at this time, that source book was the fastest selling D&D book of all time. Now, there's a new "fastest selling RPG book". Which happens to be the new PHB.

But, yeah, that is something to keep in mind. The book sales have a TON more competition today than they did in 2014. 2014, you basically only had Fantasy Grounds or Roll20 if you wanted an electronic version of the PHB. No D&D Beyond at that point. And it's not like VTT play had taken off to any great degree at that point. That would take a while.

Now, you have four or five major entry points for getting and using a PHB, of which print is still obviously largest, but, there's other options nipping at the heels.

 

[mamba]

Does it seem wierd to anyone else that they're using a soure book as a benchmark for a core book?

not if that source book was the fastest selling book previously

 

[Mistwell]

Amazon doesn't have a sales rank for it yet (the 2014 version is still ranked #1), but the 2024 PHB is getting good reviews. There's a dozen one- or two-star reviews, mostly complaining about the races--there's either too many or too few, depending on the person writing--but most of the reviews (32 out of 50) give it four or five stars.

Anyway. This is great news! I had to mentally check out of the whole subject for a while there; all of the arguments and semantics were starting to damage my blood pressure. Hopefully now that the book is released and the reception has been good overall, things will calm down around here. It'll be nice to catch back up.

There was some indication it would never have a sales rank? I don't know how any of that works so I could be wrong but I thought that's what someone who would know was saying, that it was submitted in a way where it won't display a sales rank?

 

[CleverNickName]

There was some indication it would never have a sales rank? I don't know how any of that works so I could be wrong but I thought that's what someone who would know was saying, that it was submitted in a way where it won't display a sales rank?

Right now, it shares a listing with the 2014 PHB. You can choose which option you want to purchase at checkout:

So it would seem that the 2024 PHB sales (and therefore, the Amazon ranking) will be combined with those from the 2014 PHB. I don't know the exact reason why Amazon has listed it this way, but I have my own theory:

Though some consumers might disagree, the official word from the publisher is that this is not a new edition or a new product line. So it's not surprising that Amazon combined the 2014 and the 2024 copies into the same listing. After all, this is just an updated version of an existing product--and it happens to be the most successful product in that entire category. Of course Amazon wants to piggyback on that.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Yeah, not surprised that new core books sell well. I'll be interested to know if the NEXT D&D book sells - more like Tasha's, or more like...idk...the Book of Many Things?

 

[Horwath]

Now a truly popular product will stand the test of time. None of this decade long garbage…we need to see 20-30 years of sustained year on year growth.

not sure if sarcasm or a serious CEO/shareholder talking...

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Do you work at the South Hills Village Mall Barnes & Noble in Pittsburgh?

He was standing. right. behind. you. as you were looking at the shelf.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Let's also be clear--they haven't sold out. They haven't said they sold out, and there is clearly plenty of stock in stores right now. They haven't sold out.

I'm pretty sure that's true.

My store is sold out, but that was mostly a timing issue - I had plenty of copies for the first two weeks, while my distributor had cases and cases in stock, but by the time my numbers dwindled, so had theirs. Had I reordered sooner, I'd have been able to get whatever quantities I needed (it's a strange phenomenon, that had I ordered lower I probably would not now be out of them, as I would have sent in a reorder earlier, while the distributor still had stock.

But my distributor assures me that they will have more copies this Friday, so we should be good for the weekend. Which goes to show - WotC are not sold out. Not of the "regular" cover at any rate.

There is a strong chance that barring copies here and there on stores shelves (stores that either ordered big, or reordered big before stock was gone) the "exclusive" cover probably IS sold-out, but that's how that usually goes.

I honestly wasn't expecting my Distributor to ever run out of the regular cover, but I suspect that it only happened due to the demand remaining higher than anyone expected (my Distributor reported stores reordering quantities that were higher than their initial orders, which is a rare case in this industry).

The books are doing well, that's for sure!

 

[darjr]

Right now, it shares a listing with the 2014 PHB. You can choose which option you want to purchase at checkout:

View attachment 380715

So it would seem that the 2024 PHB sales (and therefore, the Amazon ranking) will be combined with those from the 2014 PHB. I don't know the exact reason why Amazon has listed it this way, but I have my own theory:

Though some consumers might disagree, the official word from the publisher is that this is not a new edition or a new product line. So it's not surprising that Amazon combined the 2014 and the 2024 copies into the same listing. After all, this is just an updated version of an existing product--and it happens to be the most successful product in that entire category. Of course Amazon wants to piggyback on that.

I don’t believe the numbers are mingled between the two. No.