D&D 5E (2014) Dungeons & Dragons Boom!

[SovietDM]

Every year is D&D's best sales year.

In theory. During the years of 4e, however, I'm pretty sure it wasn't there best sales years, but it could just be that Pathfinder just did way better.

 

[darjr]

while all legal sales of 5E books is only physical.

This isn’t true. It isn’t sold in PDF but it is sold in bits of different sorts. D&DBeyond and roll20 for ex.

 

[abirdcall]

Oh, no. Of course not, I just made a very bad guess. I looked into it some more, and I agree that number was
ridiculous. I'd just like to recognize that not all people that play RPG's online use roll20.

I didn't say they were. Quoting my post and then taking that away from it is disingenuous.

I am the one who bothered to look for numbers. I didn't find all the numbers but that doesn't make me wrong.

In theory. During the years of 4e, however, I'm pretty sure it wasn't there best sales years, but it could just be that Pathfinder just did way better.

I am talking about 5e.

It has already been pointed out to you that 5e had been around for 2 years before Stranger Things. Each year is much better than the previous one.

Again, correlation is not causation.

4e was a commercial failure. Yes, Pathfinder surpassed D&D during that time but that doesn't mean anything as far as 5e is concerned.

If you want to know more about the sales of the games there have been multiple threads you can search for.

You can also look up the icv2 reports and use camelcamelcamel to see 5e and Pathfinder sales over time.

There are also numerous articles where WotC gives estimates of player totals.

 

[SovietDM]

I didn't find all the numbers but that doesn't make me wrong.

No, I never said you were wrong, I just said that not everyone uses roll20.

 

[SovietDM]

I am talking about 5e.

See, you didn't say that. You said:

Every year is D&D's best sales year.

 

[Zardnaar]

See, you didn't say that. You said:

Context ad_hoc was understandable.

 

[SovietDM]

I haven't been on in a while, and wasn't paying attention to context. I understand that there was a misunderstanding because of that, and I apologize.

 

[SovietDM]

So in other words, the main reason for Dungeons and Dragons's rise in popularity is the rise in streaming and social media?

 

[MNblockhead]

Almost immediately after I ran some games for my two boys they wanted to DM. Must be in the blood. My older son quickly lost interest, moved on to other interests, but now at 12 going on 13 is interested again. He asked to about what adventures he could run and after looking through my various WotC adventure books and even some short modules he decided it was easier to make up his own.

By their nature RPGs will always require GMs to do far more work than players. There are newer games though that require far less GM prep work (or almost none at all because the games are focused solely on narrative at the table and not focused on intricate rules/mechanics to adjudicate everything)

I also agree that 5E's success is in large part to a game that is much easier to teach and play than anything since Mentzer's BECMI sets (And probably easier- because of unified mechanics, higher always = better rolls, A/D vs. multiple small modifiers, etc.) but WOTC's adventure path business model makes for a large and intimidating burden for new DMs. "Here is 900 pages of rules, and oh yeah- here's another 300 pages of adventure material....have fun!" That will always be a barrier to making new DM's. New DM's need adventure material in much less intimidating "bite sized" pieces.. I.e. "modules"-however we know WOTC doesn't find that profitable enough. Products like Tales and Ghosts are a good thing IMO, but I believe that new DM's need more books like B1/2/3/4/5 and T1. Not more like POTA,OOTA or SKT.

As I have said many times- If in 1977 I had to learn the game from 3 giant hardback books, and a 250 adventure path, I would never have got into the hobby. D&D has become less intimidating for new players, but not for new DMs.

 

[Zardnaar]

So in other words, the main reason for Dungeons and Dragons's rise in popularity is the rise in streaming and social media?

Hard to say. It didn't exist in 3E and was in it's infancy when 4E landed.

More online shopping as well.

VTTs are also mature tech, cutting edge in 2008.

I would say that, 5E being comparatively simple to play and being good are big factors.

Social media I would argue us a large part of it, the product being good also helps, negative social media can bury stuff.