D&D General Darksun Adventure sales from Ben Riggs author of Slaying the Dragon

[darjr]

Actual sales numbers for Dark Sun adventures!

As with so many products, we see an absolute collapse in sales numbers in the mid-1990s.

Later today, I’ll post a survey on what sales numbers I should go through next, Monster Manuals, BECMI numbers beyond Basic, or the Complete Fighter, Elves, etc. line of products.

MY BOOK IS OUT! If you find this interesting, have you considered ordering a copy? Link in the comments below!

Also below, the data used to generate the chart.

Buy Bens book, I did and I am enjoying it. Slaying the Dragon - Macmillan
The other Dsrksun sales threads

D&D General - Darksun novel sales! From Ben Riggs.

I have my Darksun novels sitting in the bookshelf right next to me now. Just took them out again, may read them. Actual! Dark Sun novel! Sales numbers! TSR alumni are cultural treasures and gaming icons. One point that a lot of TSR alumni have been making on my posts is that while setting sales...

www.enworld.org

Darksun TSR sales! From Benjamin Riggs.

Actual! Dark Sun! Sales numbers! Dark Sun follows the same pattern we’ve seen with so many other AD&D 2nd edition settings. The first release sells best, sales decline and then fall off a cliff. Follow-up releases fail to do as well as initial releases and then sputter out as well. Here you...

www.enworld.org

 

[darjr]

Dark Sun data:

 

[overgeeked]

I wonder what the correlation between the boxed sets and the adventures will be.

 

[humble minion]

From wikipedia, the release schedule of Dark Sun adventures:

• Adventures
  • David Cook (January 1992). DS1: Freedom. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-105-9.
  • David Cook (April 1992). DSQ1: Road to Urik. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-248-9.
  • Bill Slavicsek (August 1992). DSQ2: Arcane Shadows. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-312-4.
  • Anthony Pryor (November 1992). DSQ3: Asticlian Gambit. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-315-9.
  • Richard Baker (March 1993). DSE1: Dragon's Crown. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-567-4.
  • Sam Witt (April 1993). DSM1: Black Flames. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-580-1.
  • Richard Baker (September 1993). DSM2: Merchant House of Amketch. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-643-3.
  • William Connors (December 1993). DSM3: Marauders of Nibenay. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-677-8.
  • John Terra (1994). Forest Maker. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-56076-841-X.

So 1994 saw the release of the last DS adventure, though the line allegedly continued stumbling along for a couple of years after that (first rule of Dark Sun Club is that you DON'T TALK about Mind Lords of the Last Sea...)

And from the numbers available, it looks like sales roughly correlate with the number of releases. Four adventures in 92 (I assume the 1991 sales in Riggs' numbers are an artefact of different accounting methods, Freedom was released right on the cusp of 91/92), 3 in 93, 1 in 94.

From this, I'd GUESS that each adventure sold in roughly equal numbers, and that the vast majority of people who were going to buy an adventure bought it as soon as it came out. I am inescapably reminded of the 'IT MUST BE MINE!' guy in Dork Tower. And the other thing is that, assuming all the 1991 sales were of the Freedom module because that was the only adventure released at that point, it looks like in pure numbers, adventures sold almost as many copies as the core boxed set - which I was not expecting.

Probably rubs in one of two things about D&D buyers. Either it's the DM who buys everything and shares the player material with the group, or else a significant amount of the customer base are just compulsive completionists who buy everything regardless of immediate applicability to the game (guilty as charged, your honour...).

 

[Alzrius]

It's odd to consider that the adventures were selling in much higher units than the campaign setting. I mean, I can understand buying adventures without having bought the setting; I've done that myself, but it wasn't the norm for me, and I never would have guessed that the numbers sold would be disparate to this degree.

 

[overgeeked]

It's odd to consider that the adventures were selling in much higher units than the campaign setting. I mean, I can understand buying adventures without having bought the setting; I've done that myself, but it wasn't the norm for me, and I never would have guessed that the numbers sold would be disparate to this degree.

Unfortunately, a lot of players buy modules to know what to expect. It's the equivalent to buying a strategy guide for a video game.

 

[Zardnaar]

It's odd to consider that the adventures were selling in much higher units than the campaign setting. I mean, I can understand buying adventures without having bought the setting; I've done that myself, but it wasn't the norm for me, and I never would have guessed that the numbers sold would be disparate to this degree.

It's all adventures though not just individual ones.

 

[Parmandur]

Either it's the DM who buys everything and shares the player material with the

It's this.

 

[grimslade]

That is a lot of modules sold for Dark Sun. Over 700,00 units of only 9 modules. I never bought a DS module. Who was buying modules that didn't buy the box sets?

 

[Zardnaar]

That is a lot of modules sold for Dark Sun. Over 700,00 units of only 9 modules. I never bought a DS module. Who was buying modules that didn't buy the box sets?

On average that's what 2-3 adventures per boxed set sold?