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

[Parmandur]

But I’ve been assured by someone external to WotC that the 2024 PHB will probably go into a decent discount shortly after release anyway. Im not so sure.

Amazon and Target, at least, will be selling at near wholesale prices.

 

[CleverNickName]

Good to see the Red Box still hanging in there in the Top Three. It's my favorite edition.

I wonder if that is just the Red Box "Basic Set," or if it's an umbrella term that includes the earlier B/X set, the Expert-Companion-Masters-Immortal line, and the Rules Cyclopedia? I'd believe either, honestly.

 

[darjr]

Good to see the Red Box still hanging in there in the Top Three. It's my favorite edition.

I wonder if that is just the Red Box "Basic Set," or if it's an umbrella term that includes the earlier B/X set, the Expert-Companion-Masters-Immortal line, and the Rules Cyclopedia? I'd believe either, honestly.

It’s actually the earlier b/x set that holds the lions share of sales. I think largely because it was in Sears etc for longer.

 

[Parmandur]

Good to see the Red Box still hanging in there in the Top Three. It's my favorite edition.

I wonder if that is just the Red Box "Basic Set," or if it's an umbrella term that includes the earlier B/X set, the Expert-Companion-Masters-Immortal line, and the Rules Cyclopedia? I'd believe either, honestly.

It's hard to know, because TSR did some funny book keeping, but Riggs numbers suggest that B/X by itself may have been the best selling version of D&D....prior to 5E.

 

[Zardnaar]

Good to see the Red Box still hanging in there in the Top Three. It's my favorite edition.

I wonder if that is just the Red Box "Basic Set," or if it's an umbrella term that includes the earlier B/X set, the Expert-Companion-Masters-Immortal line, and the Rules Cyclopedia? I'd believe either, honestly.

Red box only. CMI part didn't sell that well apparently, Black box got 500-600k not sure off top of head on Expert, RC, Moldvay Basic, Holmes Basic, and think there's another one I missed.
1-1.5 million for Red box and 1Ee phb have been getting thrown around for years. 1E phb had 17 print runs.

 

[Nikosandros]

It kind of ambiguous: everything from 2022 and 2023 is still selling what other publishers would kill for (Keys from the Golden Vault has sold like 19,000 copies not including FLGS sales, compared to the ~13,000 backers for Shadowdark or ~10,000 for Talea of the Valiant; Spelljammer has only sold ~84,000 copies aside from FLGS sales, bit that's approaching double the Kickstarter backers for Avatar, and outsold the original run of 2E Spelljammer).

The ready availability of "old" 5E material like Curse of Strahd and Tyranny of Dragona helps keep them in the lead: all this stuff is still in print.

Yes, those are all great numbers and the claims made by some individuals* that WotC wokeness in ruining their sales is utterly ludicrous, of course. I was just curious if there had been a dip in the sales and it appears so. I wonder if it is due to some books being fairly niche, if it is the approach of the revision or something else.

* Not on this site, to be clear.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yes, those are all great numbers and the claims made by some individuals* that WotC wokeness in ruining their sales is utterly ludicrous, of course. I was just curious if there had been a dip in the sales and it appears so. I wonder if it is due to some books being fairly niche, if it is the approach of the revision or something else.

* Non on this site, to be clear.

Not sure for me the product has been in decline since 2019/20. The adventures have never been great 3
with the odd exception.

This sites a bubble Spelljammer for example is fairly lambasted on Reddit and YouTube. It's numbers fell off a cliff outside its release window.

Theros, Ravnica. Eberron was last time they were making good product imho. New stuff looks pretty production values are great.

Monster book, Fizbans, Ravenloft were last books I bought. They weren't bad as such bit weren't good either.

Xanathars was better than Tashas.

Imho of course.

 

[CleverNickName]

For all the complaints about 5th Edition, it's pretty clear that they're doing something right.

 

[Zardnaar]

For all the complaints about 5th Edition, it's pretty clear that they're doing something right.

Numbers are there. Core books, Vampires, Dragons, player option stuff.

 

[GreyLord]

there are no 50M players, that is lifetime across all editions.

If I remember my estimates previously it was around 25 million for TSR D&D.
around 5 million for 3.X D&D.
2-3 Million for 4e.

At that time it was probably 10-15 million for 5e.

I'm thinking now it's probably around the 25-30 million mark (maybe even 35 million?).

My GUESTIMATE based on some ideas of 5 players in a group...etc...is that we are much higher than 50 million lifetime players now.

Probably in the range of 55 to 60 million at least.

However...of that, there are probably something around 5-12 million ACTIVE (big difference between currently active players vs. anyone who has played for a tme).

Beyond is a decent indicator but people will have multiple accounts...etc).

A wild shot in the dark could put it up to even higher than 60 million players.