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

[TwoSix]

Out of the 15 players at all my tables, there are 11 full sets of the core 3. 6 Xanathar's, 6 Volo's, 5 MtoF, and 2-3 of most of the other non-adventure books.

Just based on my purely anecdotal experiences, there are probably a few too many "entire campaign" adventure books and not enough other books. People at my tables have liked the part crunch/part fluff books quite a bit.

 

[dave2008]

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?

I'm just the opposite. Despite the fact that I never run published adventures, I have more 5e books than any other edition. Big reason is that I have bought most of the adventure books for the first time ever and I also bought SCAG and Eberron, despite not playing in those settings.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Most of the people I game with never bought anything since 2e. Now we all own at least the 5e PHB (and a few of us own probably half of 5e products). And one guy just started to buy up 4e stuff in the bargain bin to mine for ideas.

So I suppose even if we all didn't all buy up everything like we did in the 1e days, we are still more consumers buying stuff that hadn't bought anything in 20 years prior. Each consumer might not buy as much, but there are a lot more consumers than there used to be.

 

[dave2008]

And to reply to the OP's title: I have no idea and neither does anyone else on these forums.

 

[LordEntrails]

Think of all those new players and new groups. It sounds like most of those posting in this thread have been around for a few editions, and therefore one might think we don't need as much content as before. But regardless, all those new groups, they need content. They need the books. And since most of them (seemingly) don't get involved in RPG forums or discussions, they would appear not to be represented here. But again, they still have to buy something (unless they are pirating or just playing with the Basic Rules).

 

[darjr]

I’m an aquatic gorilla.

It’s a good argument for the go slow approach. Fewer books each with a larger impact.
Go with something akin to “seasons” and a shared experience.
Push third party licensors like those minis.

 

[ad_hoc]

I’m an aquatic gorilla.

It’s a good argument for the go slow approach. Fewer books each with a larger impact.
Go with something akin to “seasons” and a shared experience.
Push third party licensors like those minis.

Yeah, we have no idea how much they are making from 3rd parties.

I think their strategy is to get more and more people playing. Publishing more books might be a detriment to that.

Movies and video games have the potential to make more than all of the books.

 

[faunus]

If you want to wade through the SEC Filing you can Hasbro's SEC.goc filing

They don't break out DnD from the rest of Gaming, and the sales of category versions are probably never publically released, they do give a general idea of what falls under that.

Hasbro Gaming The Hasbro Gaming portfolio declined 12% in 2018 compared to 2017. Lower net revenues from PIE FACE and SPEAK OUT and certain other Hasbro Gaming products were partially offset by net revenue increases from DUNGEONS and DRAGONS, DON’T STEP IN IT, CONNECT 4 and JENGA products.
Net revenues for Hasbro’s total gaming category, including the Hasbro Gaming portfolio as reported above, and all other gaming revenue, most notably MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY, which are included in the Franchise Brands portfolio, totaled $1,443.2 million in 2018, down 4%, versus $1,497.8 million in 2017.

Also interesting to see is the news of Hasbro prepping WOTC and DnD being prepped for sale by 2023

 

[Tony Vargas]

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?

Yeah, I've noticed that. Slow pace of release, emphasis on adventures, can't expect to sell too many books to any one person.
I can only assume that the strategy, this time around, is to have a larger, but 'shallower' fanbase. Not to flog as much revenue as possible out of a few devoted fans, but to sell a starter set or PH to 10 or 100 or 1000 people who may or may not ever even read it, for each such new devoted fan they might have been able to acquire had they tried?

 

[Argyle King]

No idea.

Anecdotally, I have noticed more players at the local gaming store. Though most of them appear to buy fewer physical products.

My own collection includes the core 3 books and SCAG. I think this is the edition I find myself least knowledgeable about. Beyond the various adventures, I barely know what products are part of the product line.