D&D 5E (2014) Amazon best and worst sellers for 5e so far

[Lyxen]

MTG settings feel half baked. I have them all and I love their ideas but I find it so hard to use them in a campaign. There just isn’t enough guidance, it’s all very light flavor, light aesthetics, light narrative frames.

For example, Ravnica was, to me, a super inspiring book. But what I really needed from it was about one hundred small storyseeds that I could draw into an epic intrigue campaign. and tables for making flavorful Ravnica NPCs. And more then a single location for each guild.

I expect that since such tools are not included, not many DMs are able to easily use the book. So word of mouth doesn’t spread, and they don’t sell that well (still better then basically all other rpgs tho).

I concur. Honestly, if I want a setting, I will find dozens out there, or I can create my own. What is much harder to do is create campaigns and adventure paths.

 

[dave2008]

Current as of the time I posted them here (they update every hour; they could be different by now). I did try to find historical rankings, but didn't have any luck.

OK, that is what I thought as I don't believe Amazon provides historical rankings. From the post it seemed as if that was the ranking the year it was released. Obviously it is not a surprise that older books are lower in the rankings because amazon rankings are real-time.

 

[Bitbrain]

Thoughts:

• The MTG settings are actually the worst sellers in each year (excepting 2021, where Strixhaven beat out Ravenloft). I would have thought crossover sales would have done more for them.
• D&D original settings tend to sell better than other books in their year (excepting, again, Ravenloft).

All things that I’m very happy to hear.

I’ve always believed that they should update old settings BEFORE they release new ones.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I did notice that the M:tG settings are all selling much, much better than Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Planescape and Dragonlance.

 

[jayoungr]

For example, Ravnica was, to me, a super inspiring book. But what I really needed from it was about one hundred small storyseeds that I could draw into an epic intrigue campaign.

That's ... what chapter 4 was? It's actually one of the reasons I like that book.

and tables for making flavorful Ravnica NPCs.

I'd like that too, but I don't think any of the setting books have this, so it seems unfair to single out Ravnica.

 

[Stalker0]

Apologies after reading through all the posts so far so still don't really understand what these stats mean.

You say current sales, does that mean:

1) Sales within the last day, week, month? (in which case, recent titles would likely have a big advantage?)
2) Sales of that book for all time? (in which case, wouldn't the books from years ago have a massive advantage over new titles?)

Is the ranking a pure indicator of "book A sold X books in the timeframe, book B sold Y", or does it have other factors, such as price/profitability/reviews/etc.

 

[TheHand]

I did notice that the M:tG settings are all selling much, much better than Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Planescape and Dragonlance.

Not hard to do when WotC hasn’t yet released any 5e books for Dark Sun, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Planescape… or were you being tongue-in-cheek?

 

[Jer]

Following the link it's already changed - Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse is in the #10 slot - Tome of Foes has moved up to #9.

Since this shows some kind of current sales rank, what the rankings actually suggest to me is that settings probably trail off over time while core books and rules expansions (monsters, player tools) stay evergreen. I'll bet if you come back in 6 months Strixhaven will have dropped a few places and something new will have moved up (pre-orders for the next book perhaps).

This confirms what has been pretty much standard RPG sales ideas for decades - core books and rules sell better than adventures and settings. The 3e sales strategy was pretty much built around that, as was 4e - cranking out a new player option or monster book every month was the way you hit the target numbers and kept everything going (and since there were more players than DMs, more player option books than DM tools was also the way you hit those numbers).

 

[dave2008]

Apologies after reading through all the posts so far so still don't really understand what these stats mean.

You say current sales, does that mean:

1) Sales within the last day, week, month? (in which case, recent titles would likely have a big advantage?)
2) Sales of that book for all time? (in which case, wouldn't the books from years ago have a massive advantage over new titles?)

Is the ranking a pure indicator of "book A sold X books in the timeframe, book B sold Y", or does it have other factors, such as price/profitability/reviews/etc.

I got a clarification for JEB up thread. It is the rank at the time of the OP

 

[darjr]

Sarter set is

Which pings a memory for some reason?

I wonder why it isn’t in the D&D rankings.