I don't know if you are trying to imply that poor 2e sales is why TSR went under. if so, do we know that for sure or is it an assumption based upon TSR going bankrupt?2e wasn't making enough money (something of an understatement there).
From the TSR wiki and its quoted sources, we know that in 1996 TSR had $40 million dollars in total sales (I'll let someone else adjust for inflation to determine how much that would be today). However, according to the Wiki, 1) TSR had a bad year in novel sales after expanding their line of hardback novels from 2 to 12 per year; 2) At the same time, Dragon Dice, their entry into collectible gaming, failed in the book trade market where TSR marketed it aggressively following initial promising sales in game stores (sales, eventually plummeted in game store as well). As a result of poor sales of novels and Dragon Dice in the book trade market, Random House, unexpectedly, returned unsold novels and packages of Dragon Dice for a fee costing TSR several millions of dollars and depleting cash reserves which led to TSR being sold to WOTC in 1997.
How much of the $40 million in sales was from AD&D 2e, I have no idea. Were there issues in production of 2e? Probably. According to other sources TSR did not track sales (or tracked them poorly) and were producing individual products in numbers for a market size that no longer existed (which some people have taken too mean they had produced too many lines) and leading to overstocked warehouses. However, the return of novels and dragon dice seems to have been a huge factor in the demise of TSR.
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