D&D 5E 3 Years Later: D&D's total Domination on Amazon (and Earth in General)

[Kite474]

What ever peoples' opinions, this is good for the hobby. I am happy.

Actually, it really means nothing for "the hobby" It means D&D is doing well. For all that matters everything else could be dying and honestly, I expect to probably see some drops for other games or stagnation. If there is actual growth for the rest of the hobby I would be happily surprised. Mainly because this is a largely casual player base that's going into D&D in droves. Those arent the kind of people who try new games hell those are also the people who consider D&D one size fits all.

 

[Zardnaar]

It doesn't put much context to the number. Is 45 1000 sales or 5000 a month. Are most people buyung D&D via Amazon for example.

Using other metrucs 5E is doing well slightly above average for a D&D edition.

 

[Oofta]

Cue these arguments, made by someone every time this topic is mentioned, in true conspiracy theory "Let me provide claims which cannot be proven by their nature" tone:

1) "These don't include digital sales, and Pathfinder sells everything through digital sales (even though they used to rank well in ICv2 and decent at Amazon, and D&D also sells digitally but those somehow don't count)"; and
2) "My super secret distributor contact, who told me this in confidence, and whose name I will not reveal, told me Pathfinder still sells more total sales every month than 5e. I cannot provide proof of this, because it's secret, but it's true."

These arguments are, of course, ridiculous. But I've seen people respond this way every time the topic comes up.

LOL. I saw this post this morning and was about to respond something along the lines of "Nah, who would question this? After all I can find how many books per month this translates into after about 30 seconds of googling. Just go here."

Good thing I didn't post.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Actually, it really means nothing for "the hobby" It means D&D is doing well. For all that matters everything else could be dying and honestly, I expect to probably see some drops for other games or stagnation. If there is actual growth for the rest of the hobby I would be happily surprised. Mainly because this is a largely casual player base that's going into D&D in droves. Those arent the kind of people who try new games hell those are also the people who consider D&D one size fits all.

Typically, as D&D goes, so does the hobby. And based on feedback I've gotten from FLGS owners and my own experiences of Cons over the years, the hobby is doing better and better as a whole.

 

[happyhermit]

The whole "we have no context" argument misses the point. We have plenty of context. These are all facts;

People are buying tons of books, physical book sales in the US are up (while ebooks have actually dropped).

Amazon sells a HUGE percentage of those books.

Amazon has consistently ranked the PHB as one of it's top selling books for years now, something that only a tiny fraction of books ever achieve.

A product selling incredibly well, at a retailer that dominates the market, and the market is strong in general... the product is doing very well. When that product is demonstrably also selling very well through other channels... then it is even better.

...
It's curious that it is listed as #45 on the year to date list, but you state that it ranges ~#55 to #105 on any given day. Wouldn't it have to be higher than that to be #45 year to date? Shouldn't the pattern be something like in the #24 to #60 range on any given hour if it is #45 year to date? Or has it dropped off a lot within the last few months?
...
Something doesn't add up. ...

Not sure exactly what you are missing but it adds up just fine. Other books will be ranked higher "on any given day" but few have had the staying power of the PHB for instance, so over the course of the year the PHB will outrank them. Make sense?

 

[KarinsDad]

He said it was incomplete data because he didn't know what the secret Amazon algorithm looks like. That's disingenuous on its face. He then called us cheerleaders for not being able to tell him how the data is calculated (IE what Amazon's secret algorithm looks like). That's a gadfly. I appreciate you sympathy for him, but he doesn't deserve any for this thread. If he wanted genuine responses to his inquiries, he would have proposed genuine questions rather than questions he knows going in are impossible to answer.

Disingenuous?

I posted

What algorithm does Amazon use?

and you replied

Like I predicted, here come the conspiracy theories.

WTH?

You immediately responded by getting all snarky on me. Who p__d in your cornflakes today?


If "What algorithm does Amazon use?" is not a genuine question, then what is?

I also asked "What does "recent sales" mean?".

Like I said before, #45 YTD tells us something. The other data tells us that there are some sales, but not much more. There is no measuring stick there.


Btw, Ikj did post a serious response to the Amazon algorithm question:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...neral)/page3&p=7185779&viewfull=1#post7185779

 

[KarinsDad]

Not sure exactly what you are missing but it adds up just fine. Other books will be ranked higher "on any given day" but few have had the staying power of the PHB for instance, so over the course of the year the PHB will outrank them. Make sense?

Yes. What did not make sense at first is that he stated that it stayed in the 55 to 105 range most of the time and it was 45 YTD. That seemed strange. But, after thinking about it some more, you are correct. Staying power is the problem. Other books come in for 6 months and then fizzle out, hence, artificially lowering the rank on any given day. And this happens all of the time, so it keeps getting pushed down on the daily index, but maintains it's lengthier higher YTD rating.

 

[darjr]

So, anyone have any idea how many copies the other books on that list sell? Did anybody give out sales numbers? By that I mean the books that stay or have been in the top 100 for a while.

I remember reading something about hundreds of copies of The Great Gatsby sell a day. And it is in the top 100 and I think it's been there a while?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yes. That way it is possible that on YTD it may be higher or lower than on "recent sales" which as you correctly asked for could be a bit more precise.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Another thing that will keep up the sales of the core 5E books is the success of dependent systems or settings that require some version of the core rules for play, such as Adventures in Middle-Earth. No numbers have been given by Cubicle 7, but they have at least said those books are being major sellers for them, which means more 5E core book sales to people who want to play AiME, but did not already own the core. This is the best example and I am not sure what others there are out there that would be adding to the sales of the core books.