ICv2 Top 5 Roleplaying Games - Q4 2010

[Dannager]

Q4 Rankings are up!

To summarize:

1. Dungeons & Dragons
2. Pathfinder
3. Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch
4. Dragon Age
5. Mutants and Masterminds, inc. DC

 

[Maggan]

Q4 Rankings are up!

Thanks for the headsup.

Interesting, for what little one can glean from this. D&D Essentials might have done better than what I have read plenty of posters surmise. Green Ronin seems to be on a roll.

Pathfinder and WH40kRP holding their own, WFRP dropping (which I think is a shame, I like a lot of what FFG are doing with the line).

/M

 

[Wicht]

Thanks for posting that.

 

[DaveMage]

I guess D&D got that "Essentials" boost after all!

 

[czak]

Also good news:

Sales in the hobby game channel grew around 10% in
2010 despite a continued weak economy, according to the 2010 market report in Internal Correspondence #74. The increase was the result of growth in every game category in 2010. The saying says “As goes Magic, so goes the hobby game market,” and that certainly held true in 2010.


ICv2 - Hobby Game Channel Up 10%

 

[delericho]

Interesting. Congratulations to WotC.

 

[Zil]

I guess D&D got that "Essentials" boost after all!

Indeed! I'm curious about how much of the WoTC D&D hobby channel sales for Q4 were the Essentials Starter Game. I'm guessing the product did well in the Christmas run-up. If you look at the Amazon RPG game list (yes, I know that's not the same as the hobby channel), it is consistently in the top 10 even though the product seems to be panned by many here, 4E fans and not.

 

[BryonD]

D&D Essentials might have done better than what I have read plenty of posters surmise.

Looks that way. The 10% growth overall is an even better indicator of that than the #1 slot, I think.

 

[Argyle King]

what exactly does "based on interviews" mean?


I'm not sure if I take that as a valid basis for sales data.

 

[Dannager]

what exactly does "based on interviews" mean?


I'm not sure if I take that as a valid basis for sales data.

It's not. All ICv2 reports should be taken with a grain of salt. They are compiled based on interviews with hobby store channel distributors/owners, and are not necessarily based on hard data. They do not include large chain book retailers like Barnes & Noble or Borders, they do not include sales from online book retailers like Amazon.com, and they do not include sales from subscription services like Pathfinder Subscriptions or D&D Insider.

They are interesting to look at, but they don't necessarily mean anything except by way of comparison to previous ICv2 reports.