D&D General Behold! A mega chart of AD&D 1st and 2nd ed monster products sales!

[darjr]

These are not sales numbers. They are print runs. Some of those books could have been returned and refunded by had to be paid to the printer anyway. So a loss in revenue.

Ah. I didn’t realize. Thank you.

 

[darjr]

These are not sales numbers. They are print runs. Some of those books could have been returned and refunded but still had to be paid to the printer. So a loss in revenue.

In the web page it says sales. Do you know if the catalog says prints? Or do you know that it’s supposed to be prints even if the catalog and the site say sales?

Thanks!

 

[Parmandur]

These are not sales numbers. They are print runs. Some of those books could have been returned and refunded but still had to be paid to the printer. So a loss in revenue.

Well, they certainly didn't sell more Fiend Folios than they printed.

As to why so many fewer MM sold than the nearly identical PHB & DMG numbers...I guess a lot of people were using the Basic & Expert Sets for Monsters, but using the PHB and DMG for other stuff.

 

[darjr]

Ben responds with a comparison of the core books vs the monster books

D&D General - AD&D core book vs. Monster books comparison by Ben Riggs

I love how Ben is paying attention to the debate about the numbers he’s releasing and responding with great insight. How do sales of AD&D Player’s Handbooks (PHBs) and Dungeon Master’s Guides (DMGs) translate to monster products? Seems like that answer is of more than historical interest, since...

www.enworld.org

 

[Jer]

I'm almost certain that it did. Note that Ben's charts are missing 1977 and 1978 data (he specifically notes that on his FB post).

The first two years the original MM was out, in which every OD&D player who wanted a single-volume, clean and organized monster book would have been buying it, aren't included in these figures.

That's true, but the year-to-year numbers as new DMGs and new PHBs are being sold from 1979 until the fall off between 83 and 84 the MM is always below the two of them. You have folks getting the PHB, fewer folks getting the DMG, and then not all of those folks also picking up the MM.

That pattern repeats with the 2e Monstrous Compendium, though the weird product design of the MC does make it a bit hard to compare. But far fewer lifetime copies of the MC1 were sold than the 2e DMG. And the 2e DMG + Revised 2e DMG has more sales than the MC1 + Monstrous Manual. I suppose folks could just be buying any old MC (total sales of MC1-MC4 is higher than the DMG sales, but you have to assume that many people bought all 4 of them).

I can imagine running games with just the 1e DMG because there are at least tables of monster stats in it. But 2e cut all that out and assumed you'd be buying a monster book, so it's odd. I do wonder if many of the PHB and DMG sales just were going to people with the Basic and Expert sets who were using the monsters out of there?

 

[Mezuka]

Well, they certainly didn't sell more Fiend Folios than they printed.

Thank you Captain Obvious I hadn't figured that out!

 

[Parmandur]

Thank you Captain Obvious I hadn't figured that out!

Well, hey, just pointing out that the info is useful in showing the roof of a product: the Fiend Folio is a sharp decrease from the MM and MM2.