D&D 5E D&D 5E’s Top-Selling Adventures and What It Means for the Hobby from Teos Abadia aka Alphastream.

[Reynard]

This bit: "A quick interesting comparison. The original AD&D 2E Spelljammer campaign setting, a boxed set, sold 54k copies in 1990 (data from Ben Riggs). The 5E version sold 84k in about 10-11 months."

Oof. 30 years later with likely an order of magnitude more people playing D&D and even if you adjust up due to the 75% figure, the new spelljammer did not double the old one in first year sales. That doesn't sound like a categorical success.

 

[ersatzphil]

No, that's the lifetime sales for the 3.5 PHB he is referring to on the chart, this data is for all editions of D&D tracked by Bookscan. Rising from the Last War has outsold the 3.5 PHB, and no other 3E books made the list.

The freaking cookbook outsold the 3.5 PHB. That's bonkers to me, and I own both!

 

[Parmandur]

This bit: "A quick interesting comparison. The original AD&D 2E Spelljammer campaign setting, a boxed set, sold 54k copies in 1990 (data from Ben Riggs). The 5E version sold 84k in about 10-11 months."

Oof. 30 years later with likely an order of magnitude more people playing D&D and even if you adjust up due to the 75% figure, the new spelljammer did not double the old one in first year sales. That doesn't sound like a categorical success.

No, ot doubled the lifetime sales of the original within a year. Not.year to year comparison. And this, again, doesn't include any FLGS sales, so my alt cover copy sitting on the shelf isn't counted in that 84k: 84k is the floor for first year sales, 81k is the absolute lifetime sales of the original box. And Spelljammer was one of the better selling 2E box sets!

 

[Maxperson]

Makes me wonder how planescape will do!

Depends on if the setting book has more than 8(2 really) pages of setting in it like Spelljammer did. It seems like it does and if it covers enough, then it should do really well.

 

[dave2008]

This bit: "A quick interesting comparison. The original AD&D 2E Spelljammer campaign setting, a boxed set, sold 54k copies in 1990 (data from Ben Riggs). The 5E version sold 84k in about 10-11 months."

Oof. 30 years later with likely an order of magnitude more people playing D&D and even if you adjust up due to the 75% figure, the new spelljammer did not double the old one in first year sales. That doesn't sound like a categorical success.

However, it has faired well to other 5e adventures so far in its first year and is the #3 selling book this year still. That being said, I expect it to drop off quickly - just not as quickly as the original spelljammer!

 

[Parmandur]

The freaking cookbook outsold the 3.5 PHB. That's bonkers to me, and I own both!

That truly is crazy: 3E seemed big at the time to me, as a geeky Teen...but the number smake sense of why so many WotC folks got fired and 3.5 was rushed out, and then 4E came out within just 5 years. Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, as a random example, has been in print about as long as the 3.5 PHB was!

 

[dave2008]

Depends on if the setting book has more than 8(2 really) pages of setting in it like Spelljammer did. It seems like it does and if it covers enough, then it should do really well.

I never got into either back in the day, but I will say that Planescape seems more like a traditional "setting" while Spelljammer seems more like a splatbook / concept book to me.

 

[Reynard]

No, ot doubled the lifetime sales of the original within a year. Not.year to year comparison. And this, again, doesn't include any FLGS sales, so my alt cover copy sitting on the shelf isn't counted in that 84k: 84k is the floor for first year sales, 81k is the absolute lifetime sales of the original box. And Spelljammer was one of the better selling 2E box sets!

The quote says: "A quick interesting comparison. The original AD&D 2E Spelljammer campaign setting, a boxed set, sold 54k copies in 1990 (data from Ben Riggs). The 5E version sold 84k in about 10-11 months."

What did I mis read?

 

[pukunui]

I’m marginally concerned by Dragon Heist’s position. That book is like a laundry list of how not to do a good adventure. I would hate to think it could be the first D&D experience for so many new players – I wouldn’t want them to think that is how an adventure is supposed to play out.

 

[Reynard]

I’m marginally concerned by Dragon Heist’s position. That book is like a laundry list of how not to do a good adventure. I would hate to think it could be the first D&D experience for so many new players – I wouldn’t want them to think that is how an adventure is supposed to play out.

It is a terrible adventure but it is probably WotC's best toolkit. There is a lot of useful material in that book, you just have to mine it yourself.