D&D 5E Amazon US book sales rank.

[mamba]

And there's the fact that D&D books released after the USA Today booklist hiatus tended to rank lower, which may have meant a methodology change that affected how many D&D sales were seen relative to other methods. (Fizban's debuted at #6 and Spelljammer at #13 before the hiatus, while Planescape was the first to make it after and was at #129, for example).

SJ at 13 and PS at 129 has no good explanation, if a change in methodology results in this drastic change then bestsellers are completely arbitrary and it is more about your methodology than about any actual book sales

 

[darjr]

SJ at 13 and PS at 129 has no good explanation, if a change in methodology results in this drastic change then bestsellers are completely arbitrary and it is more about your methodology than about any actual book sales

It might. People were very wary of the format and the price after SJ. I’d have to look at the Amazon numbers at the time.

 

[mamba]

It might. People were very wary of the format and the price after SJ. I’d have to look at the Amazon numbers at the time.

I heard more negative things about SJ than PS, so I expected the sales to be at least similar

 

[darjr]

I heard more negative things about SJ than PS, so I expected the sales to be at least similar

Yes, after people bought SJ. The initial purchase was pretty high. I think.

I’m saying that people bought a bunch of SJ initially and felt burnt then didn’t buy as much PS at first.

But I’d have to double check a lot.

 

[Parmandur]

SJ at 13 and PS at 129 has no good explanation, if a change in methodology results in this drastic change then bestsellers are completely arbitrary and it is more about your methodology than about any actual book sales.

USA Today rankings would not include FLGS or direct sale purchases. I imagine WotC direct sales have taken a big bite out of mainstream stores sales.

 

[darjr]

USA Today rankings would not include FLGS or direct sale purchases. I imagine WotC direct sales have taken a big bite out of mainstream stores sales.

I wouldn’t. Not yet. Need more info.

 

[mamba]

I imagine WotC direct sales have taken a big bite out of mainstream stores sales.

I can see that with the 2024 books and the $20 discount per book for the digital + physical bundle, but they had nothing like that for PS afaik

 

[see]

SJ at 13 and PS at 129 has no good explanation, if a change in methodology results in this drastic change then bestsellers are completely arbitrary and it is more about your methodology than about any actual book sales

Well, while RPG books are definitionally "books", they're not the type of book the USA Today Booklist was set up to track. Changes in their data sources or methodology that jerk around D&D sales ranks do not necessarily indicate that they're "arbitrary" for the list's core purpose.

It does indicate USA Today's Booklist isn't good for tracking D&D sales, yes, especially for comparisons over a long time or across the booklist's multi-month shutdown.

But everything else has similar problems. Amazon book sales rankings have been nice, but are inherently limited to just Amazon, and at least so far we're not getting them for the 2024 PHB. ICv2 will eventually give us vague rankings based on unscientific surveys of game stores that aggregates game lines as wholes. Then there's . . . whatever WotC self-reports? Anecdotes from owners of game stores?

I mean, we can throw up our hands and say we don't know, but then, these are just comment threads on the Internet. Even if the numbers are bad, the stakes aren't very high.

 

[Parmandur]

I can see that with the 2024 books and the $20 discount per book for the digital + physical bundle, but they had nothing like that for PS afaik

They did actually have that for Planescape, and in point of fact Spelljammer was the final D&D book that didn't have a physical & Beyond direct sale preorder deal, as they started with Shadow of the Dragon Queen.

 

[mamba]

They did actually have that for Planescape, and in point of fact Spelljammer was the final D&D book that didn't have a physical & Beyond direct sale preorder deal, as they started with Shadow of the Dragon Queen.

they started, but I do not think they had $20 discounts, making it less attractive. I don’t think a drop by 100 ranks or so between SJ and PS can be explained by people using the WotC preorders