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.

 

[Lanefan]

The one setting that's impossible to pin from those numbers is Mystara/Known World, as the material was sold piecemeal rather than in one big box.

 

[Bedrockgames]

So was Dragonlance then as well

I admit I had Red Steel. I also admit I only skimmed it and never used it.

I had red steel and liked the boxed set. Was not able to arrange much table play with it. But I remember really liking the flavor of the setting.

 

[Lidgar]

This. Ninjas to the left of me. Ninjas to the right. Everywhere I look, ninjas!

No doubt. By the mid-to late 80's, I think EVERY SINGLE PARTY had at least one ninja. It was the glorious era of GI Joe and Kung Fu!

 

[MockingBird]

I wanted the Planescape box set, just couldn't ever find it during that time. There were a lot of books I wanted that I couldn't find at that time. The only thing I readily available was the PHB, DMG, FR greybox, Domains of Dread and random brown books of special characters "book of cleric". This was in the 90s.

 

[Sacrosanct]

That is absolutely silly.

What's silly about it? Give me examples, because both books are very similar in design. They have setting info, and then a bunch of stuff for PCs (new classes, 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 did 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.

Everyone I knew back then had a copy of OA.

I owned my store by '93 and so I've ordered and sold every D&D product made since then. I find it amusing that I don't even remember Karameikos or Red Steel even existing. (Both as a D&D fan AND as a retailer!)

I picked up Karameikos as a Mystara fan but ended up enjoy it more than I expected because the setting was so straightforward that they had to lean into the politics to make something out of it. No iconic characters or NPCs to steal the show. Just who trusted who and who hated who.

 

[BenRiggs]

Glad for this research. Yet calling these simply “settings” feels a bit misleading. Maybe “selected campaign setting products” would be more accurate.

If 2e Karameikos boxed set counts as a “setting”, then why not also include the sales of GAZ1 Karameikos? And the 2e Glantri boxed set and the BECMI Glantri Gazetteer? And all the Gazetteers?

What about the Hollow World boxed set?

Ben Riggs here!
These numbers are taken from internal company documents I've been given. As such, they are apparently what the company considered settings. Your points are well taken. But I'm a historian at the mercy of what data has trickled down to us from the past. There's tons of data I don't have. Everything in your post for example. Also, I have no data on the vast majority of novels, and the vast majority of adventures.

 

[BenRiggs]

The one setting that's impossible to pin from those numbers is Mystara/Known World, as the material was sold piecemeal rather than in one big box.

I would add I have zero D&D Known World data, so unless a source sees this and decides to cough up some info, that may be lost to history...

 

[Parmandur]

Ben Riggs here!
These numbers are taken from internal company documents I've been given. As such, they are apparently what the company considered settings. Your points are well taken. But I'm a historian at the mercy of what data has trickled down to us from the past. There's tons of data I don't have. Everything in your post for example. Also, I have no data on the vast majority of novels, and the vast majority of adventures.

Any other Wildcard sales numbers that stand out as historically curious?

 

[Reynard]

Okay, then what is the "core setting material" for Mystara?

No such thing exists. The setting was presented and marketed in an entirely different way than all the others. It is probably impossible to pin down exactly how popular it was relative to FR or Spelljammer or whatever.