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

[KarinsDad]

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.

Online gaming is probably the biggest boost.

 

[i_dont_meta]

Has anybody out here seen the number of hits for "Critical Role" on the YouTube?! Don't tell me the Amazon #'s are "misleading" or "false information"! Granted the two are mutually exclusive, but it's hard to argue that D&D has NEVER been more popular than it is today...


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[Darkness]

This thread has some civility issues. Folks, don't fight, please. This is just an internet forum about pretending to be an elf, so let's take it easy and try to have some fun.

 

[Tobold]

Scientifically speaking, not knowing the exact algorithm of the ranking doesn't invalidate the ranking, as long as we have reference data using the exact same algorithm. So the absolute value of the PHB being "Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86" (checked just now) isn't really relevant. But the comparison with a competing product, e.g. the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook, which has an Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,753, is certainly telling.

Every scientific measure has an error bar, but it seems obvious that the error bar of the ranking is a few ranks up or down, and a difference of over 4,000 ranks is statistically far more than significant.

 

[DaveDash]

My anecdotal evidence for how well D&D is doing is by how easy it is to find players. Lots of new players as well, and young players.

Even now it's very easy to fill the ranks of players compared to when 5e launched.

 

[Morrus]

You said you'd leave the thread to us cheerleaders with no true data. "No true data" is you calling it false. That's what those words mean. "Not true" = "false". Or should I start calling you Kelly Ann Conway from now on instead of KarinsDad? Otherwise why would you say this thread has no true data after it was already provided in the first post? And I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees you making an awfully strong attempt at dismissing it.

Politics - and especially political insults - are not permitted on this website.

 

[TerraDave]

So again, what does "recent sales" mean?


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?

...

Good question. #45 is a really good stat, so good job is finding that. That means of all books being bought on amazon through 2017, 44 have sold more, and several thousand have sold less then the PHB.

Why would current sales be lower? Most books come, peak early, and fade. Thats true of most game books as well. So right now there are several books ranked higher then the PHB that won't be in the top 100 next week or next month. The PHB sticks around. That gives it a higher rank for the year. It would be interesting to see a cumulative ranking for the last 3 years. It should be really high, but we don't have that.

 

[JeffB]

Gary used to say "rising tide lifts all boats" and I agree to a certain extent.


I'm of two minds

1- Glad to see D&D popular.

2- Don't want to see it do TOO well. Every time it starts to ride a huge wave, I've watched it and the companies that have owned/owns it wipe out..hard. And each time it gets regurgitated by the new business model and comes back more bland than it was before.

 

[mflayermonk]

Good question. #45 is a really good stat, so good job is finding that. That means of all books being bought on amazon through 2017, 44 have sold more, and several thousand have sold less then the PHB.

Why would current sales be lower? Most books come, peak early, and fade. Thats true of most game books as well. So right now there are several books ranked higher then the PHB that won't be in the top 100 next week or next month. The PHB sticks around. That gives it a higher rank for the year. It would be interesting to see a cumulative ranking for the last 3 years. It should be really high, but we don't have that.

Are the amazon rankings based on number sold or $$ value sold?
So which would rank higher- 1 sale of a $101 book or 4 sales of a $25 book?

 

[TerraDave]

The overall ranking is impressive. I'm not sure we should pay much attention to its ranking in "Fantasy Gaming", though. If D&D wasn't the best selling fantasy game, WotC would be doing something *really* wrong. That position is theirs by default, unless they screw up.

Well, remember fantasy gaming has non-rpg products. There was a Zelda tie in book that hung around in there for a long time, and sexy truth or dare shows up around Valentines day.

But also, in the 4E era more recent products where top sellers, what is notable here is lock of the core products.

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.

Its certainly the cheapest way to buy it. But we know from IVC that D&D also dominates retail, and there has been a growth of millions in retail sales for RPGs. Most of that has to be core books...its not like there is much else to buy for D&D.

But let us resume our standard discussion.

We know from past threads that 5E has demolished 3.5 and 4E in terms of Amazon sales rankings, and almost certainly more books are sold through Amazon now then then. So a higher relative ranking must account for much higher relative sales. Plus, remember that growth on the retail side.

So I am calling it: 5E way better then 3.5 or 4E.

But thats a low bar you say, and you are right.

What about 3E? That was supposed to be huge out the gate. But just 3 years later they launched 3.5. Hmm, 3...years...later.

We know it was launched to make up for lagging sales. 5E sales aren't lagging, by some measures they are growing.

So I will say it 5E > 3E.

Ok, 2E. We know that was a lackluster edition. 3E > 2E. Hence 5E > 2E.

That leaves the big boy: 1E. And I can't call it. Sales in the early 80s where insane, and it was kept in print for a really long time. Of course the Blume brothers wasted a bunch of that money (and there was Gygax, living it up in Hollywood), but thats another thread.

Still, the best selling edition in decades. And on its way to best selling of all time, if not already.