D&D 5E How much money is D&D 5e actually making?

[Neonchameleon]

D&D 5e is very successful in terms of players - and the 5e PHB is selling better than probably anything since the classic red box in the early 80s. But I had a look round my table last night - six committed players (including me) and two at least dolphins and probably whales in there and realised something. None of us had bought much from WotC. We have two copies of the PHB between us. A copy each of the Stranger Things and Rick & Morty boxed sets. One copy of Xanathar's Guide to Everything. We'd borrowed a DMG. And ... that's it. Not that we're short of other stuff (minis, battle maps, terrain, one of the players is making a computerized gaming table, etc.) Just ... not much that has much to do with WotC.

This hasn't been true for past editions - indeed my 5e books are outnumbered by my 4e books, my Pathfinder books, my 3.5 books, my 3.0 books, my 2e books, my 1e books, and even my oD&D books. For that matter I have more 13th Age books than I do 5e (this might be an extreme example). And when I look at my main 4e group (now scattered to the winds) the other whale in that group only has slightly more books than I do (all the core 3) and she's also running a 5e campaign. She's also got a lot of Pathfinder books plus a shelf full of 4e.

And when I think about other groups the whales among us were in the habit of buying books for D&D - and WotC made money hand over fist with D&D Insider with its $10/month or $70/year subscription; that subscription was almost pure profit. Pathfinder has its adventure paths and APGs.

Is this "not a lot to buy for 5e and not in the habit of buying 5e books" normal for everyone else? And what does it say about how D&D is doing?

 

[DWChancellor]

I've bought all of the non-adventure 5E books. A lot of the third party stuff (miniatures) is likely licensed. Some of this behavior is due to buying too much 3E and 4E (and Pathfinder) and not getting a huge amount of use out of most of it. A lot of it is also being a mature DM and preferring to homebrew nearly everything instead of run pre-gens.

If there was a more reasonable way to buy pdf content I'd buy more from WotC too. I'm really annoyed with their digital content plan nowadays that would require me to buy everything twice if I want it digitally and in person. I loved the 4E online content b/c it was useful and relatively generous. The 5E doesn't feel that way to me.

 

[jasper]

"Dolphins are evil" Wendell Manatee.
Okay I think whales are the players who buy all D&D content to include official 3rd party. Dolphins are bums who only buy dice.

 

[Oofta]

D&D is doing fine. Could the hobby support more books? What's the point of diminishing returns when it comes to cost of development versus profit per product? Heck if I know. Accountants and managers at Hasbro have made a calculation that seems to be working so far. There's no way to know how much profit even books like the core 3 PHB, MM and DMG make even limited simply to printing and distribution costs.

TSR produced a ton of content, much of which sold well. So more product doesn't necessarily mean more profit. Admittedly they had other issues as well, but if more product always meant more profit they'd still be in business. People that buy everything the company produces are a small fraction of the overall community, catering to a fraction of the niche of people that play D&D simply isn't profitable.

 

[Sadras]

Okay I think whales are the players who buy all D&D content to include official 3rd party. Dolphins are bums who only buy dice.

There needs to be an in-between aquatic mammal category for those that buy more than dice but less than official 3rd party material. Possible options include sea cows elephant seals or walruses.

 

[generic]

There needs to be an in-between aquatic mammal category for those that buy more than dice but less than official 3rd party material. Possible options include sea cows elephant seals or walruses.

If that's true, I'm more of an Octopus myself. I pull all of the accessories I can afford towards me, and then hide them by not finding uses for the adventures that I buy.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Jd Smith1]

Me and five players: four PHBs and two DnD Beyond account holders.

I bought third party 5e monster cards in pdf because I only use pdf products.

A few things from DMs Guild, and that's about it.

Loads of dice, though: my players have bronze dice, exotic wood dice ($250), and others.

 

[pogre]

I run a table of whales. There are piles of piles of books available at my table. I won't get into all the accessories we buy - hint - it is a ridiculous amount.

For us, the slower release schedule has meant most of us have purchased every book. There are some exceptions like the Ravnica setting and the Acquisitions Incorporated books.

Most of my players these days are 50-somethings and their kids. Position in life has something to do with it too I suspect. If my boys want a book I just buy it - not something I could have done a couple of decades ago.

 

[ad_hoc]

Just look at Amazon sales histories as well as Icv2.

In 2013 RPGs were $15 million/year.
In 2018 RPGs were $65 million/year and growing.

Hobby Games Sales were actually down 3% from 2017 to 2018 but RPG sales were up 18%.