From Forgotten Realms to Red Steel: Here's That Full D&D Setting Sales Chart

Whether this will end a thousand internet arguments or fuel another thousand, Ben Riggs, author of Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons, has finally published the combined chart of cumulative sales for every AD&D setting from 1979 to 1999.

Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Oriental Adventures, and Dragonlance lead the pack. The least selling setting was Red Steel in 1994. There was a clear decline in sales of all settings from 1989 onwards, so that's not necessary a comment on quality. Planescape, certainly a cult favourite, sold surprisingly few copies.

Slaying the Dragon - Macmillan

The secret and untold story of how TSR, the company that created Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, then ...

read.macmillan.com

In order, the best-selling settings were:

1. Forgotten Realms
2. Greyhawk
3. Oriental Adventures
4. Dragonlance
5. Ravenloft
6. Dark Sun
7. Spelljammer
8. Lankhmar
9. Al-Qadim
10. Planescape
11. Birthright
12. Maztica
13. Karameikos
14. Red Steel

These stats were compiled as part of his research into his book, Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons, which you should totally buy.

Slaying the Dragon - Macmillan

The secret and untold story of how TSR, the company that created Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, then ...

read.macmillan.com

Let's dive into some individual sales charts! Note, these are for the primary setting product, not for additional adventures, supplements, etc.

 

[Von Ether]

In those waning conditions, Birthright seemed to sell as well as it could. I had Red Steel. It was an odd ball setting that I liked but I can also see why it didn't take off.

It didn't help that it was really a mini-setting inside FR and thus had to also waste time on rules for why Red Steel infected characters lost their powers when going back to FR proper.

If it had been set in it's own universe, it might have been fun to see how the infection impacted things beyond the region.

[EDIT: Doh! It was in Mystara, which was one of the reasons I picked it up! ]

 

[Dice Dragon Dan]

Red Steel was part of Mystara, not the Realms.

But yeah it was an oddball thing that had all those fiddly rules that could have worked as a larger world.

 

[schneeland]

Interesting! I didn't expect Oriental Adventures to be the third best-selling setting, beating Dragonlance.
Not that I expect WotC to bring the setting back, but still a nice bit of D&D history.

 

[Reynard]

View attachment 254234

I think someone should add first year sales to this chart.

 

[Reynard]

Interesting! I didn't expect Oriental Adventures to be the third best-selling setting, beating Dragonlance.
Not that I expect WotC to bring the setting back, but still a nice bit of D&D history.

I think it might be a little unfair, since OA isn't just a setting book but an actual rules manual.

 

[J.Quondam]

What does it mean when a "sales" number dips below zero?

* Also, why on earth are all those charts formatted differently?

 

[Inxanity]

Did Red Steel really have negative sales for a whole year starting in '95? Oof. Hope that's just a sloppy drawing lol

 

[Ath-kethin]

Really the most surprising thing on that chart is that Planescape didn't sell better. I guess I wasn't the only one left wholly unimpressed by it (aside from DiTerlizzi's exquisite art, anyway).

The 2nd most surprising? The popularity of Oriental Adventures. I knew it was big, but I never thought it was THAT big.

 

[Reynard]

Did Red Steel really have negative sales for a whole year starting in '95? Oof. Hope that's just a sloppy drawing lol

Returns?