D&D 5E Amazon US book sales rank.

[Zardnaar]

It think that’s part of it. The majority of D&D fans desperately wanted 5E when it came out. I didn’t get the sense around here that many people were equally desperate for this update. Most people seem to greet it with a shrug.

I expect them to live around half (1E to 2E or 3.0 to 3.5). That's assuming things go well.

They don't really need to sell more just more than 2022/3.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

Just 5 years ago (before the pandemic) I would have jumped at buying the new player’s handbook in paper. In 2024 I ended up buying it at D&D Beyond and Foundry.

 

[TerraDave]

Hang on. Let’s not forget that it was about a year or more after the release of 5e that we started seeing these huge sales increases.

It was strong out of the gate. Then staid there.

The problem is that our mods made this Frankenstein thread out of other threads where the posts are out of order with the wrong dates:

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...

www.enworld.org

There are probably other ways to confirm online, or you can just take my word for it.

 

[Oofta]

I think it will take a bit before we know anything. A lot of people probably don't know about the new version or may be waiting for the other books to come out. It's also not a dramatic change so there's no reason to switch they day of the release.

Time will tell how well it sells, making any conclusion one way or another at this point is premature.

 

[Imaro]

I will say as a user of DDB I decided to go with the WotC bundle since I knew I'd want digital and physical. I'll probably grab an additional one from Amazon later... but I'm not sure with the rise of DDB that Amazon will necessarily be the main outlet that many grab their corebooks from.

 

[Oofta]

I will say as a user of DDB I decided to go with the WotC bundle since I knew I'd want digital and physical. I'll probably grab an additional one from Amazon later... but I'm not sure with the rise of DDB that Amazon will necessarily be the main outlet that many grab their corebooks from.

Not just DDB but it you're playing online you can get the rules from the VTT for some of of them. We may never see physical book sales as we used to see again, doesn't necessarily mean fewer people are playing the game.

 

[darjr]

Two things.
DDB is a wrinkle when comparing 2024 to 2014 launch with Amazon ranking.
From what I’m hearing sales are good.

I just want to know how big the launch is.

 

[Imaro]

Two things.
DDB is a wrinkle when comparing 2024 to 2014 launch with Amazon ranking.
From what I’m hearing sales are good.

I just want to know how big the launch is.

What were the 2014 launch numbers?

 

[Mercurius]

I work with high school kids, a bunch of whom play D&D. None of them knew about the revised books.

It makes me wonder if the initial sales represent mostly long-term diehards - folks like members of this message board that follow the industry closely, versus "kids in the wild" that mostly just like to play but don't follow the industry much. But I'm also guessing that excitement over this from the diehards was a lot more tepid than it was for 2014, let alone 2000.

Presumably some of them will get it eventually - and I'd imagine holiday season will see quite a few sold.

I think another factor -- at least among diehards -- is that, as a revised version, it inhabits a nebulous zone between "reprint" and "new edition." People excited and/or curious for the latter are less likely to buy it. It doesn't feel quite like the "Event" of past edition releases, even similar ones like 3.5 (comparatively, it feels more like 5.3).

And as someone who isn't actively playing right now and would probably go a different route if I did start a campaign up (e.g. Shadowdark, Dragonbane, etc), I'm more curious about the DMG than I was the PHB.

 

[darjr]

What were the 2014 launch numbers?

Launch rank I can give you.

There is a chart in this thread from camel camel camel.

It hit #1 on launch and stayed in single digits until Amazon sold out in a few days. Which happened a few times