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

[Parmandur]

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.

The BattleZoo guys seemed to kind of want to find a s.okimg gun of declining sales, bit it seemed hard to say if Spelljammer and Golsen Vault were part of a trend of decline or.just more niche than some of the earlier products.

 

[Zardnaar]

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.

The atrach rate metric might be flawed though. Most groups I see have multiple phb.

Our groups probably atypical with more phb than players. They're selling different covers as well I've lost track of how many variants there are but whales could buy at least 3 (I've had 4 currently 3).

 

[mamba]

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

that is my guess for 5e as well

 

[Zardnaar]

that is my guess for 5e as well

My numbers around 10-20 million. That's based on low and high estimates of 5E sales and translating that into a ratio of that 40 million.

High end 5E sold similar to all the other D&Ds combined with possible exception of Basic.

On the low side its around 2 of the TSR editions combined with enough left over for one of the other WotC editions.

 

[MockingBird]

I'm curious to see how big of a bump BG3 brings into the hobby. I'm seeing on FB in BG3 groups a lot of people not familiar with the ttrpg. There's guys at my work interested in BG3, I see this as an opportunity to introduce the ttrpg game to them.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm curious to see how big of a bump BG3 brings into the hobby. I'm seeing on FB in BG3 groups a lot of people not familiar with the ttrpg. There's guys at my work interested in BG3, I see this as an opportunity to introduce the ttrpg game to them.

I imagine it'll be about the same sized "bump" that we saw with the Honor Among Thieves movie release.

Hm.

Now that I think about it? Both are going to show a "bump" for the year, and people on ENWorld ten years from now are going to be arguing relentlessly with each other about which of the two was the real reason that sales increased suddenly in 2023.

 

[Parmandur]

I imagine it'll be about the same sized "bump" that we saw with the Honor Among Thieves movie release.

Hm.

Now that I think about it? Both are going to show a "bump" for the year, and people on ENWorld ten years from now are going to be arguing relentlessly with each other about which of the two was the real reason that sales increased suddenly in 2023.

I mean, Honor Among Thieves didnset the world on fire, but it sill sold like 10 million movie tickets. How many of the people who enjoyed the movie decided to give BG3 a shot when the reviews were phenomenal for that, too...?

It honestly has to be one of the most solid one-two punches I'm the franchises history, in terms of quality.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

One thing that complicates this is the incomplete nature of the information. The Advenfures that sold better on this list were notably not released with FLGS exclusive alternate covers: my copy of Golden Keys that I got from my FLGS with daid alternate cover is not part of tue sales data present. Are those older books selling more, or are the newer books much more likely to be bought at FLGS? Probably both?

 

[Parmandur]

@Alphastream has a new blog poat up going over these numbers, and has made some good transcriptions and analysis:

How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

How many copies do D&D's top products sell? We take a look at BookScan data and what it means for D&D and the hobby.

alphastream.org

 

[Nikosandros]

@Alphastream has a new blog poat up going over these numbers, and has made some good transcriptions and analysis:

How D&D Sells and What It Means for the Hobby

How many copies do D&D's top products sell? We take a look at BookScan data and what it means for D&D and the hobby.

alphastream.org

The sales that Alphastream reports for AD&D look far lower than those that were shared previously, for example here.