D&D 5E Brand Vs RPG

[Azurewraith]

Buying something you don't like is not the same as being a slave to corporate overlords. Your elitism shouldn't be confused with wisdom.

Calm down Im not being an elitist just stating my pov. May I ask why you would purchase a product you don't like?

 

[Jester David]

It was Ryan Dancey who supplied the 300k in its 1st month and 500k in the 3.0 lifetime figure.

Link?

I can see these Dancey columns:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?404-Ryan-Dancey-Acquiring-TSR#.Vngn7xUrJaQ
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?315800-4-Hours-w-RSD-Escapist-Bonus-Column
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?405-WotC-DDI-4E-and-Hasbro-Some-History#.VngnMBUrJaQ

None of them mention sales numbers.

10 Million dollars is the minimum I would say 5E has got based on the ICV2 figures and it actually checks out quite well with the estimates based on the Amazon sales figures. (100-200k PHB sales would account for 5-10 million of that figure).

220k PHBs. Plus the MM, DMG, and adventures.
Assuming the former two sold half as many as the PHBs that's still almost 500k books. At roughly $45 a pop ($30 Amazon, $50 elsewhere) D&D has made well over 10 million.

d20 was everywhere the size of the WoTC forums were a magnitude larger than the last few years (and probably ENworld as well), they had FR authors on the FR boards and you could type a response up and by the time you finished it could be on the following page.

D&D is also other places that didn't exist fifteen years ago. It's on Twitch and YouTube. It's on VTTs. Comparing forum usage is an outdated metric.

 

[Mistwell]

Calm down Im not being an elitist just stating my pov. May I ask why you would purchase a product you don't like?

Calm down I am I am just stating my pov I wouldn't purchase a product I don't like. You appear to have failed to consider the possibility that some people like different things than the things you like. Nobody here cares that you dislike some products - the only comment was that you assumed it was other people being slaves to corporate overlords if they bought products you don't like...as if it were not possible they actually liked those products they were buying.

 

[Zardnaar]

Link?

I can see these Dancey columns:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?404-Ryan-Dancey-Acquiring-TSR#.Vngn7xUrJaQ
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?315800-4-Hours-w-RSD-Escapist-Bonus-Column
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?405-WotC-DDI-4E-and-Hasbro-Some-History#.VngnMBUrJaQ

None of them mention sales numbers.


220k PHBs. Plus the MM, DMG, and adventures.
Assuming the former two sold half as many as the PHBs that's still almost 500k books. At roughly $45 a pop ($30 Amazon, $50 elsewhere) D&D has made well over 10 million.


D&D is also other places that didn't exist fifteen years ago. It's on Twitch and YouTube. It's on VTTs. Comparing forum usage is an outdated metric.

IIRC it was in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXLBBp3YDro

That last link you posted
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?405-WotC-DDI-4E-and-Hasbro-Some-History#.VngnMBUrJaQ

He does mention how much D&D was worth which s roughly where Pathfinder+5E are.

Assuming the numbers and estimate we do have are somewhat reliable (or even in the same ball park) 5E is the 4th fastest selling version of D&D of all time which is not to bad. Beaten in 1st year sales by 2E, BECMI red box and 3.0 PHB. THe edition overall might be doing better due to things like profit margins or what they count as core book sales I am just counting PHB. I so not count the PDF of basic D&D (its free and older editions did not have that) and IDK how many 5E start sets sold which may be more than 3.0 when combined with PHB sales. I suspect a lot of starter set sales were to people with PHB as well so its not individual customers as such buying and playing it and most other editions did not have a starter box on launch (2E got one in 1999).

 

[Parmandur]

IIRC it was in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXLBBp3YDro

That last link you posted
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?405-WotC-DDI-4E-and-Hasbro-Some-History#.VngnMBUrJaQ

He does mention how much D&D was worth which s roughly where Pathfinder+5E are.

Assuming the numbers and estimate we do have are somewhat reliable (or even in the same ball park) 5E is the 4th fastest selling version of D&D of all time which is not to bad. Beaten in 1st year sales by 2E, BECMI red box and 3.0 PHB. THe edition overall might be doing better due to things like profit margins or what they count as core book sales I am just counting PHB. I so not count the PDF of basic D&D (its free and older editions did not have that) and IDK how many 5E start sets sold which may be more than 3.0 when combined with PHB sales. I suspect a lot of starter set sales were to people with PHB as well so its not individual customers as such buying and playing it and most other editions did not have a starter box on launch (2E got one in 1999).

Thing is, we know the Novel Tracker numbers are wildly inaccurate; their tracking, per their website, is only useful for books that sell 100 copies or less a month, whereas their numbers for 5E at eight months suggest 5000+ per month. The problem is they can track batches being transmitted by Amazon, but not the quantities involved: due to the way e-commerce works for physical warehouses, transmitting by large batches for picking efficiency, those numbers are meaningless.



Unless Amazon or Wizards release official numbers, we can assume jack-all.

 

[Azurewraith]

Calm down I am I am just stating my pov I wouldn't purchase a product I don't like. You appear to have failed to consider the possibility that some people like different things than the things you like. Nobody here cares that you dislike some products - the only comment was that you assumed it was other people being slaves to corporate overlords if they bought products you don't like...as if it were not possible they actually liked those products they were buying.

No i didn't mean buying products i didn't like i meant the people that moan about the price/content of things that they then go and purchase anyway making big company see the $£(wow no euro sign on my kb sorry Europe) and keep making the same crap that person x didn't like but they keep buying it and the cycle continues. I totally get the whole different strokes for different folks. I'm sure we can both agree though anyone that purchases something they knowingly dislike is a strange behavior to partake in

 

[Zardnaar]

No i didn't mean buying products i didn't like i meant the people that moan about the price/content of things that they then go and purchase anyway making big company see the $£(wow no euro sign on my kb sorry Europe) and keep making the same crap that person x didn't like but they keep buying it and the cycle continues. I totally get the whole different strokes for different folks. I'm sure we can both agree though anyone that purchases something they knowingly dislike is a strange behavior to partake in

Collecters and completionists might buy whatever just for the sake of owning it. I bought most of my RPG products blind, I only really regret 2 books I bought (3.0 Epic Level Handbook and Deities and Demigods)

 

[Azurewraith]

Collecters and completionists might buy whatever just for the sake of owning it. I bought most of my RPG products blind, I only really regret 2 books I bought (3.0 Epic Level Handbook and Deities and Demigods)

But then they are buying it for the joy of having a complete collection so enjoy the product? ok im being anal now ill behave sorry i was woken up in the middle of the night and now im grumpy

 

[delericho]

Link?

Here's my link from last time this came up.

 

[Zardnaar]

Here's my link from last time this came up.

Some of those are a little bit higher than the info I was using but a few match up with what others have said. I had seen the 2E figures before an never added up the 1E books. 1E would be the biggest D&D version ever based on those numbers (I thought it was the Red Boxed set).

https://www.acaeum.com/library/printrun.html