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]

Honestly, our knowledge of the numbers on any edition are fairly nebulous.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Unbeeleafable.

Thaumahtirge.

Might even be a trajesty.

 

[TerraDave]

Sure, all this thread shows is that the phb is selling about as well as any book can at early release.

I dont think an rpg book has done that in recent decades. Or come remotely close. For example, see

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?243902-Amazon-Sales-Rankings-amazing-data!

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2jwhb?Amazon-ranks-Congrats

So, its the best selling rpg book out of the gate in decades. Could mean "nothing" if you dont care its best selling. But then this whole thread would probably not be of interest to you.

 

[Imaro]

The PH is still available at Amazon.

Correction... The PHB is back in stock again. It was unavailable for a couple of days.

 

[Thaumaturge]

there is also this

https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/507228635552415746/photo/1

That hack rag? Please.

Thaumaturge.

 

[TerraDave]

Still hanging in there...

#15/#25/#1

D&D still covers the top 5 in fantasy gaming and the PHB is the 8th most wished for book.

 

[Zardnaar]

Zardnaar first off please excuse me if I missed the sarcasm tags in your post. Provided that you were being serious I did want to focus on the one point that you brought up that at least looks testable, and that is GenCon play numbers.



5e sold out almost all of their slots and had a very small number of total events. The issue, if there was one, was with supply not with demand.

I have never claimed 5E has had a bad launch, form the look of it it has been a good one. The only thig I am claiming is using Amazon reviews to claim 5E is doing better than 3E for example is idiotic.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/203659/pc-penetration-per-capita-in-north-america-since-2000/
http://www.statista.com/statistics/203667/pc-penetration-per-capita-in-western-europe-since-2000/
http://www.statista.com/statistics/203677/global-pc-penetration-per-capita-since-2000/

PC use has more or less doubled or tripled in most countries since 2000. Using that logic all things being relative 5E would need to have 2-3 times the reviews of 3E just to be in the same ball park. If they have sold more than 3.0 at 300k in the 1st month that is impressive but we don't know what the actual figures are. Going by the price of the PHB I supsect it is a smaller print run than 3.0 as the huge print run for 3.0 was what let them sell the book at $20 on release or $30 bucks these days instead of $50. If they have been selling 5E at 3.0 numbers with that higher price tag ka ching for WoTC.

 

[TerraDave]

Now it's #1! (as of 3:46 pm EST)

And its still there! Eat that scrabble.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

This is the best I can find. The PHB 3.0 was featured on the main page apparently a few days after reviews start appearing in Amazon's records.

Check this out too . It states that the 3.0 PHB was #1 on Amazon’s hardcover fiction list on about August 27th, 2000.

Whoah, wait a minute. I think you buried the lede here: 3e was "fiction" but 5e is "nonfiction." This time we get to use real magic!

If only Jack Chick knew how right he was...

View attachment 64175

 

[Sailor Moon]

I'm sorry but trying to compare online services and usage from 2000 to now is absolutely ludicrous and makes me want to tell them to please educate themselves. Amazon was not selling back then like they are now because the populace didn't fully trust online shopping. The online bubble wasn't about shopping on Amazon or Ebay. FLGS and big retail bookstores are where most of your RPG's were bought and saying otherwise is just flat out wrong.

Making Amazon your measuring stick for success is just grasping at straws for some kind of confirmation of victory. We will never know the answer to which one would have sold better online because you are dealing with a 14 year difference which is huge.