Kevin O'Reilly
First Post
In detail
What is your estimation of the size of the market for d+d fantasy products
What is your estimation of the size of the market for d+d fantasy products
Publishers - How big is d+d?
- Thread starter Kevin O'Reilly
- Start date
That's not so easy to answer, because it depends what you mean. For a start, by "d +d fantasy products", do you mean products produced under the D&D brand (by WotC or Kenzer, the only two who can do this) or products "compatible with" D&D (i.e. D20 or OGL products)?
Or do you mean "how many people play D&D?" (in which case Ryan Dancey posted some figures a while back; I can't remember where, offhand, though).
Or do you mean "how many people who play D&D would buy third party fantasy products compatible with it?", which is a significantly smaller number.
Or do you mean "how many people would potentially buy D&D products, but are not necessarily yet players?"
Or do you mean something else entirely?
I think you need to clarify your question a little.
Or do you mean "how many people play D&D?" (in which case Ryan Dancey posted some figures a while back; I can't remember where, offhand, though).
Or do you mean "how many people who play D&D would buy third party fantasy products compatible with it?", which is a significantly smaller number.
Or do you mean "how many people would potentially buy D&D products, but are not necessarily yet players?"
Or do you mean something else entirely?
I think you need to clarify your question a little.
jmucchiello
Hero
I think that would only say "At least X people own the PHB." There are lots of gaming groups where only on PHB is passed among 6 players and the DM. And there are people who get the PHB as a gift from well-meaning RPGers who never even read it. There is not a correlative relationship really.Cergorach said:
And in terms of market (as Morrus sent the thread), I doubt there's ratio there either: the ratio of PHB buyers to buyers of d20 fantasy material is not causative. A rise in PHB sales does not cause an equal rise in d20 fantast sales.
Joe
Kevin O'Reilly
First Post
Morrus
Clarification:
I'm looking at the existing universe of people that play d+d 3e-
Definition: a player is someone who owns at least one core book and plays at least once a month.
Definition: d+d 3e means fantasy core rules book only and explicity excludes WOT, Star Wars, Modern.
The number I'm inititially looking for is "How Many".
It's not exact, hence the range.
I' recall Ryan saying a number a while back, and 1.5MM comes to mind.
Kevin
Clarification:
I'm looking at the existing universe of people that play d+d 3e-
Definition: a player is someone who owns at least one core book and plays at least once a month.
Definition: d+d 3e means fantasy core rules book only and explicity excludes WOT, Star Wars, Modern.
The number I'm inititially looking for is "How Many".
It's not exact, hence the range.
I' recall Ryan saying a number a while back, and 1.5MM comes to mind.
Kevin
Pramas
Explorer
Kevin O'Reilly said:
IIRC, 1.5 million was the number of people playing D&D across all editions. The 3E PHB has sold in the neighborhood of half a million copies. Of course, some groups only have 1 or 2 PHBs between them, so even that isn't an accurate gauge of the number of players.
Of more concern to publishers is the number of active purchasers. That group is much smaller. I'd guess there are less than 50,000 people who buy D&D and d20 supplements on the regular basis.
when i answered the question - and maybe i should not have - I focused on the market side of it.
When I consider market, I was not considering the number of people who play d and d but rather the number of people who regularly purchase d and d products. i excluded all genre or other areas of fantasy gaming, sc-fi what have you. Only d and d 3e whether WotC or 3e products. and by regularly purchase, i mean more then 4 or 5 times a year. Although that number may seem arbitrary - it is. So hummmm.
Davis
When I consider market, I was not considering the number of people who play d and d but rather the number of people who regularly purchase d and d products. i excluded all genre or other areas of fantasy gaming, sc-fi what have you. Only d and d 3e whether WotC or 3e products. and by regularly purchase, i mean more then 4 or 5 times a year. Although that number may seem arbitrary - it is. So hummmm.
Davis
As someone who's planning on opening a gaming/hobby shop, those numbers are quite depressing.
I know that we're only talking 3e here, but to have a community as large as EN World and the WotC boards, there have to be many more gamers that aren't spending their time on the boards.
I'd like to think that it's much bigger, considering the smattering of worldy players we have around the boards.
I know that we're only talking 3e here, but to have a community as large as EN World and the WotC boards, there have to be many more gamers that aren't spending their time on the boards.
I'd like to think that it's much bigger, considering the smattering of worldy players we have around the boards.
MEG Hal
First Post
From what I have seem and people I have talked to, Chris Pramas seems to have the numbers right where we are thinking, about 500k PHB's sold, as far as active purchasers 50k seems like a good number, but I am sure that number moves a bit, so get those gift lists ready for holiday and add a bunch of d20 stuff to that list. 
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