D&D 5E 5E Lifetime Sales in North American Big Box Stores Revealed

[Parmandur]

Roll for Combat recently put up a video with guest Professor Dungeon Master, taking a look at professional book sales information they have access to as publishers. The data is limited to big box stores like Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, or Books a Million im the US only, so this is excluding any FLGS or Amazon or non-American sales.

Apparently with the numbers from hust these limited channels, the 5E PHB has sold over 1.6 million copies, and is selling 2000 copies a week currently. There was no effect on sales during the OGL fiasco, but Honor Among Thieves did lead to a sales surge for a while there (2000 PHBs a week is the regular, steady sales rate). The 5E PHB has sold over ten times what the 3.5 PHB did in the same channels. In studies of Book Scan, UCLA apparently has determined thst the data equates to about 75% of the usual book sales market, while Book Scan claims 85% (but I would say this might be far less for a hobby game, so take this as a minimum floor for talking about relative sales of different products than the full story).

The DMG has sold over 800,000 copies in these channels and the MM over 700,000. The commentators seem confused thst there are only two PHB sales per DMG, but my experience is that usually the DM owns the sole PHB in a group, so thst tracks to me.

Apparently Curse of Strahd is the all time best selling Adventure, and still sells regularly in these channels, followed by Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and Tales from the Yawning Portal.

• Curse of Strahd with 147,244 copies sold
• Hoard of the Dragon Queen with 120,844
• Waterdeep Dragon Heist with 110,678
• Tales from the Yawning Portal with 106,942 copies
• Ghosts of Saltmarsh with 92,905 copies
• Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden with 83,308 copies
• Tomb of Annhilation with 81,903 copies
• Candlekeep Mysteries with 77,950 copies
• Out of the Abyss with 75,340 copies
• Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage with 74,750 copies

We Have the D&D Bookstore Sales Data! Let's See Exactly How Many D&D Books Are Sold Every Year!

People have been speculating on how many D&D books WoTC sells every year. Well, we have the numbers for EVERY 5E book sold by WoTC sold through bookstores! W...

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[Zardnaar]

Some figures came out in another post and criss referencing multiple numbers (eg tsr sales 1983,adjusting for 8
inflation etc, size of RPG market last 10 years) was guesstimating 2-3 million give or take. Broadly speaking around double or triple 1E or red box.

Years ago I saw figures for 3.5 selling around 250-350k (500k 3.0).

3.5 was one of the lowest selling D&Ds though.

Someone said 5E had outsold all the other editions COMBINED. Couldn't confirm it as sone of the old estimates are just that and are broad (eg 1-1.5 million) and sales of 4E were unknown except less than 800k. And wasn't sure if they were just counting PHB only as one of the biggest D&Ds lacks a phb.

 

[darjr]

@Morrus from Ben too.

Ben Riggs chimed in, he said those numbers are a base for sales, and probably a low one. He told me:

Those numbers are from BookScan.
BookScan does not capture all sales, and the percentage will vary by title.
Sometimes 85 percent
Sometimes more
Sometimes less
For example, BookScan only captured 50 percent of my book's sales
So … Those numbers are interesting because they provide a floor of DND sales

 

[Parmandur]

@Morrus from Ben too.

It makes sense.that, given his subect matter, Riggs book may have sold in a lot of hobby shops that are off of Book Scan's radar...the sorts of places that sell D&D books.

 

[rooneg]

It makes sense.that, given hisnsu ject matter, Riggs book may have sold in a lot of hobby shops that are off of Book Scan's radar...the sorts of places that sell D&D books.

It's not just Riggs (or D&D adjacent books/authors) who sees this sort of thing. It's super common for bookscan numbers to be pretty wildly off from actual sales, and the amount they are off varies a lot from book to book and author to author.

 

[darjr]

It's not just Riggs (or D&D adjacent books/authors) who sees this sort of thing. It's super common for bookscan numbers to be pretty wildly off from actual sales, and the amount they are off varies a lot from book to book and author to author.

Do you think they make a base level of sales? Or do you think they are wildly high as much as low?

 

[Parmandur]

Do you think they make a base level of sales? Or do you think they are wildly high as much as low?

As far asI know, it's not an estimate at all: those represent accurate hard sales numbers...for the channels that connect with Book Scan. So the PHB has absolutely sold at least 1.6 million copies in those North American big box stores. The question is, how high is the ceiling over thar hard floor...? Amazon sells a lot of D&D books, and FLGS sell a lot from all evidence that I've seen.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I wonder if WotC's marketing strategy thinks about no-fantasy genre: sci-fi, superheroes, WWII.... licence of videogames.

How would be using the VTT to play Fortnite: Save the World d20?

 

[Parmandur]

Having thought about it overnight, I think one of the most astonishing things is that the PHB is selling about the same week to week as it has consistently for the past decade...around 2000 copies, regularly. Even with new core vooks announced, though I suppose anybody buying a PHB from Target in 2023 is probably not plugged into online D&D news at all.

 

[dave2008]

Some figures came out in another post and criss referencing multiple numbers (eg tsr sales 1983,adjusting for 8
inflation etc, size of RPG market last 10 years) was guesstimating 2-3 million give or take. Broadly speaking around double or triple 1E or red box.

Years ago I saw figures for 3.5 selling around 250-350k (500k 3.0).

3.5 was one of the lowest selling D&Ds though.

Someone said 5E had outsold all the other editions COMBINED. Couldn't confirm it as sone of the old estimates are just that and are broad (eg 1-1.5 million) and sales of 4E were unknown except less than 800k. And wasn't sure if they were just counting PHB only as one of the biggest D&Ds lacks a phb.

Remember that 1.6 million PHB number does not include Amazon or Hobby shop sales. The actually number could be much higher.