Most influential RPG

[soviet]

Posting that Sims & Stephens are "likely bound by NDAs" is pure speculation that doesn't give their comments about ttrpg sales numbers any real value. They're essentially saying "Trust me, bro"

Meanwhile, ICv2 is a trusted source of sales data for several industries, not just ttrpgs. D&D being outsold by Pathfinder would be a big deal, big enough to impact D&D's market value. If ICv2's numbers were off, why wouldn't Hasbro issue an official statement pointing out the errors?

Your argument doesn't make sense. Not good business sense, anyway.

It's clear you really want to believe this, but it isn't true.

I seem to remember that Amazon had a really good deal on the core 4e books on release, and that's where I think everyone in my group got their books. Later I bought Martial Power 1 as a pdf and some in my group were subscribers to whatever the digital thing was called. We hardly bought anything from an LGS.

 

[dbolack]

Meanwhile, ICv2 is a trusted source of sales data for several industries, not just ttrpgs. D&D being outsold by Pathfinder would be a big deal, big enough to impact D&D's market value. If ICv2's numbers were off, why wouldn't Hasbro issue an official statement pointing out the errors?

Okay. I might need a citation there because in the years I have been aware of ICv2 that's never been an assertion I've heard put forth. Their description of data gathering demonstrated how unreliable it is for projecting.