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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Echohawk" data-source="post: 6291595" data-attributes="member: 9849">Because armchair industry analysis is entertaining, let's take a look at the number of D&D and Pathfinder products released last year. In 2013, WotC released eleven "new" D&D titles, while Paizo released more than 70 new products for Pathfinder.What the report seems to be saying is that 26% of survey respondents listed Pathfinder as a "best seller" for 2013 (compared to 17% for 2012) and 11% of survey respondents listed D&D as a "best seller" for 2013 (compared to 9% for 2012). Linking the number of new products released to this, we can say:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">With more than 70 new Pathfinder releases in 2013, the "Pathfinder" brand was considered a best seller by 26% of retailers. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">With 11 new D&D releases in 2013, the "D&D" brand was considered a best seller by 11% of retailers.</li> </ul>I'm extremely wary about using this information to compare the two brands. I'm slightly less wary about leaping to conclusions about each brand independently...For Pathfinder: Why aren't more retailers listing Pathfinder as a best seller? Seventy products per year is a lot, so either retailers aren't stocking a full range of Pathfinder products, or they are selling limited numbers of the more niche products. They clearly aren't selling vast quantities of all 70 products, or more of them would consider Pathfinder a best selling line. (This leads me to think that their direct sales channel is a much better longer term strategy for Paizo than retail sales. I'll bet their direct sales numbers are more consistent than their retail sales numbers. Subscription model for the win!)For D&D: How on earth did D&D manage to remain a "best seller" for 11% of retailers with only eleven new products in 2013? How many of those reprints did those retailers sell to be persuaded that D&D still counted as a "best seller"? Are the margins on D&D books better than the margins on other RPG lines or is the D&D brand really strong enough to get that much mindshare with so few products?</blockquote>

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