D&D 3E/3.5 5E's Initial Raw Sales Numbers Stronger Than 3E's!

It seems that the initial sales of D&D 5th Edition are very strong. Asked about how they compare to 3E and 4E, WotC's Mike Mearls says that "Raw numbers are stronger, but that's not the complete picture. end of year 1 is the key." The Player's Handbook has now topped the hardcover nonfiction sellers list at Publishers Weekly. As of right now, it's #1 in Fantasy Gaming at Amazon, and a week ago it was the #1 book on Amazon!

In other news, prompted by some discussion about the gaps between D&D edition releases, I whipped up this quick info-graphic showing the dates that each edition was released. [threadcm]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?359004-So-I-have-been-out-of-town-for-a-few-weeks-did-I-miss-something[/threadcm]

 

[Parmandur]

That Zelda book, incidentally, is amazing; good company to be keeping!

 

[TerraDave]

We are at the 2 month point for the thread, lets see where things stand with the top books in fantasy gaming:

#1 MM 24 overall, 16 in new releases, 25/28 5 star reviews
#2 PHB 39 overall, 28 most wished for, 269/334 5 star reviews
#3 Starter Set 302 overall (released July 15)
# 4 DMG 311 overall, 83 in new releases
#6 HotDQ 663 overall

Still pretty strong. The starter set is going on 3 months. Compared to, say, the 4E red box, well, there is no comparing, with the 5E ranking much much higher. (Same for PFBB, though , as we know, that is going to be less amazon dependent).

One interesting comparison is Keep on the Shadowfell. This actually did pretty well in its first month, when it was the only product available to play 4E. Sales rank went from 152 to 183, so comparable to the 5E starter set. (and better then HotDQ). Unfortunately we do not have any other sample until Oct, when it plummets down to 9000 or so. And its early reviews, well those were also a little different than the ones for the starter set, or any 5E product.

OK, that’s probably the last of these I do for a while, but I will probably do an update at some point.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I've actually cancelled my two orders.

Because my LGS was F enough to have a midnight release.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Mistwell]

I just want you to know that when you alter your signature to go with the post, I always notice, and I appreciate it.

Ha, I had never noticed that before, but now I am! Very cool.

 

[BoldItalic]

Monster Manual is up next. I wonder if there will be a similar trend?

 

[The Black Ranger]

Let's not forget that people will buy it to check it out. Waving the victory flag is a bit premature.

I wouldn't rely on Amazon to be a full proof answer as to how well it's doing.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I do think the amazon numbers are incredible for the PHB.

Though I must admit online interaction is way different than it was in 2000. I talk to my great aunt via facebook. I would never ever have done that via usenet. Nor, my gosh, fidonet, never.

Most of my gaming group back then were not on the internet, not anywhere close to where most/all of my gaming group is now on the internet.

Anyway Ryan Dancy in Morrus' Interview stated that the 2nd edition phb sold 280,000 copies in the year of transition from 1st ed. I wonder how many copies they sold of the 1e phb during that same year.

Anyway, he goes on to say they sold 300,000 copies of the 3.0 phb in one month.

It's at about 28:00 in here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXLBBp3YDro

So, is there anyway we can tell if the first month of 5e PHB's got close to or better than that? I think we can find out if we dig, and I'd bet that it crushed that number, just a hunch, a guess.

Don't need exact numbers, a good swag should give us a decent idea.

I thought I also read that the 4E PHB outsold the 3E PHB initially, but the sales didn't continue beyond the first 12 months.

So it's not just initial sales (although strong initial sales are obviously better than weak initial sales), but also how many people continue to buy D&D books beyond the core rulebooks.

 

[TerraDave]

Yes, success requires going beyond being the top new seller.
Or dominating the Rpg catagory, where the starter set still sits at the top next to the phb.

They should just shut down wotc for such a fail.

 

[TerraDave]

Seven weeks latter, D&D is still the top five in fantasy gaming (I think that Zelda book had snuck in there, but is back in its place).

Going through the top 5:

#1PHB 25 overall, 17 in most wished for
#2 MM 36 overall, 17 in new releases
#3 Starter Set 139 overall, higher then when I started this thread
#4 DMG 280 overall, 66 in new releases
#5 HotDQ 442 overall, this seems low, but does beat every other gaming book/product, (hence the ranking).

 

[Halivar]

I've heard from a couple of FLGS here that they did not go all in on stock of 5e materials, because they got killed and wanted to play wait and see. They confessed they were blown away by demand that they did not anticipate and were out of stock opening weekend.

My FLGS ordered 24 copies, and all of them were gone by noon; I got the last one.