RPGNow Sales Charts: Excel help needed!

[Morrus]

Hey folks,

I was trying to satisfy my own curiosity and use the RPGNow sales charts to try and produce some slightly more meaningful data.

What I figured I'd do is record the publisher holding each position in the Top 100, take those numbers away from 101 and add them up - so #1 scores 100 points, and #100 scores 1 point. That way, I can get an idea of publisher sales based on position and number of products.

I realise this is hardly scientific, and does not include a lot of important data - most notably, it doesn't take into account sales not made at RPGNow (so Malhavoc won't appear at all, despite being the most likely candidate for the #1 spot, and other publishers do not sell exclusively at RPGNow and so those sales aren't counted).

But, this will do for me. I can use some common sense when looking at the results.

Anyway, I've reached the limit of my Excel skills - I've colated the positions per product, but I'd appreciate some help with the calculation stage.

Each figure on this spreadsheet needs to be deducted from 101. Then for each publisher, the scores need to be totalled, and the results displayed in descending order by publisher.

If anyone has a spare moment and knows a bit more about Excel than I do, I'd be grateful if you could have a quick crack at it - I don't imagine that applying appropriate formulae will take any more than 5 minutes for someone who knows what they're doing!

I've attached the spreadsheet below. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[reanjr]

Hey folks,

I was trying to satisfy my own curiosity and use the RPGNow sales charts to try and produce some slightly more meaningful data.

What I figured I'd do is record the publisher holding each position in the Top 100, take those numbers away from 101 and add them up - so #1 scores 100 points, and #100 scores 1 point. That way, I can get an idea of publisher sales based on position and number of products.

I realise this is hardly scientific, and does not include a lot of important data - most notably, it doesn't take into account sales not made at RPGNow (so Malhavoc won't appear at all, despite being the most likely candidate for the #1 spot, and other publishers do not sell exclusively at RPGNow and so those sales aren't counted).

But, this will do for me. I can use some common sense when looking at the results.

Anyway, I've reached the limit of my Excel skills - I've colated the positions per product, but I'd appreciate some help with the calculation stage.

Each figure on this spreadsheet needs to be deducted from 101. Then for each publisher, the scores need to be totalled, and the results displayed in descending order by publisher.

If anyone has a spare moment and knows a bit more about Excel than I do, I'd be grateful if you could have a quick crack at it - I don't imagine that applying appropriate formulae will take any more than 5 minutes for someone who knows what they're doing!

I've attached the spreadsheet below. Thanks in advance for your help!

I believe (I haven't looked at the spreadsheet yet) that this is beyond what you can do with a calculation. It requires a script to be written. If it's important I can do it around 7AM Eastern Time.

 

[Cergorach]

Count the positions of each line together. => A
Number of positions of each line. => B
C => Number of points each publisher has.
B*101-A=C
Then use sort to to sort by highest scorer (or by alphabetical listing).

 

[Morrus]

Super - thanks!

 

[Morrus]

Right... for those interested, here are the results:

Publisher rankings based on RPGNow sales only. These figures are based on products found in the Top 100 (All Categories - All Time) chart at RPGNow.com. Each ranking product is scored inversely to its position in the chart (so, #1 scores 100 points, #100 scores 1 point).

This chart does not take into account sales made at stores other than RPGNow (e.g. DriveThru RPG, SV Games, White Wolf Store); notably it therefore does not include a score for Malhavoc Press.

This chart assumes an even weighting distribution throughout the Top 100 chart.

This method of determining scores is far from scientific. Please use common sense when viewing them, and apply your own knowledge of the e-Publishing industry.

EN Publishing 1249
RPGObjects 536
Worldworks 367
Ronin Arts 367
The Game Mechanics 327
Dark Quest Games 321
Darkfuries 267
Exp Retreat Press 152
Mongoose Publishing 129
LPJ Design 128
nBos Software 99
The Other Game Company 77
Dreaming Merchants 76
Privateer Press 69
Cryptosnark Games 66
Minion Development 61
Silverthorne Games 55
Pinnacle Entertainment 50
Bloodstone Press 48
Twin Rose SOftware 46
Skeleton Key Games 40
Fantasy Cutouts 37
Bayn.org 36
Mad Kaiser Games 35
ST Cooley Publishing 34
WotC 31
Malladin's Gate Press 29
Throwing Dice Games 28
Vigilance Press 15
Gold Rush Games 15
Alternate Realities 12
0one Games 3
Mad Scientist 2

Fairly interesting. It's interesting to see that non-PDF publishers like Mongoose rank as high as #9 in the chart, above some publishers I'd expect to see higher. Then again, their few PDFs have sold very well.

 

[HellHound]

As a lark (and because I usually check the d20 sales stats), I ran the spreadsheet for the d20 top sellers instead of the overall top sellers and got:

Of course, the d20 chart is a little messed up since some OGL products don't appear there, and some products that aren't really d20 are on there. (well, at least one product).

ENP 1596
RPGObjects 723
Ronin Arts 533
TGM 450
Dark Quest 325
Mongoose 201
Expeditious Retreat 166
Bloodstone Press 128
Cryptosnark 101
Silverthorne 98
Darkfuries 86
TOGC 83
Privateer 78
Throwing Dice Games 64
Malladin's Gate Press 56
Vigilence Press 39
Alternate Realities 37
Gold Rush Games 34
Mad Scientist Studios 32
Grell Head 31
LPJr Design 29
Bastion Press 28
Dreaming Merchant Press 27
Goodman Games 24
Sundered Blade Games 22
Plain Brown Wrapper 18
Creative Mountain Games 12
Second World Sim 10
Valent Games 9
Terra Ferax 8
Wyvern's Claw 2

 

[jmucchiello]

As a lark (and because I usually check the d20 sales stats), I ran the spreadsheet for the d20 top sellers instead of the overall top sellers and got:

I, for one, prefer that chart. I'm higher up it.

 

[rpghost]

While interesting... there are some flaws.

I don't think any publisher will be pist if I don't give you actual numbers to post... so here is a list of the top 30 publishers (in order) by $ volume for 2004 only sales:

Wizards of the Coast
WorldWorks
SkeletonKey Games
ProFantasy Software
Ronin Arts
Pinnacle Entertain.Group
RPGObjects
E.N. Publishing
nbos Software
Malhavoc Press
Microtactix
Mongoose Publishing
LPJ Design
Expeditious Retreat Press
The Game Mechanics, Inc.
EN World
Minion Games
Politically Incorrect Games
0one Roleplaying Games
Goodman Games
Gold Rush Games
The Other Game Company
Mad Scientist Studios
Atlas Games
Majestic Twelve Games
Mad Kaiser Games
Bloodstone Press
Interactive Design Adventures
Darkfuries
Alternate Realities Publications


Sales by UNIT volume (total products sold) for 2004 only:

Wizards of the Coast
E.N. Publishing
Ronin Arts
SkeletonKey Games
LPJ Design
Malhavoc Press
RPGObjects
Pinnacle Entertainment Group
WorldWorks
Microtactix
Creation's Edge Games
The Game Mechanics, Inc.
Mongoose Publishing
Politically Incorrect Games
Mad Kaiser Games
Expeditious Retreat Press
The Other Game Company
0one Roleplaying Games
Alternate Realities Publications
Bloodstone Press
Gold Rush Games
Goodman Games
VShane.com
Guardians of Order
Darkfuries
ProFantasy Software
nbos Software
Dark Quest Games
West End Games
Atlas Games

 

[D_Sinclair]

Wow. I figured Alternate Realities Publications would have been lower on the $$ list, but it is impressive to be #30 out of 220+ rpgnow vendors. My guess would have been #80 or so. While I'm not authorized to provide financial information, I am authorized to say that in attaining the #19 slot for sales by unit volume, it represents 700 units sold for 22 products, between January 1, 2004 to July 23, 2004.

One thing I'm going to do is add a little extra data for comparion. Below, I've taken the Top 30 by sales volume list and added their position on the sales by $$ chart, plus the size of their catalogs (minus free products).

      Company                         $$     Catalog
01. Wizards of the Coast              1       808
02. E.N. Publishing                   8       31
03. Ronin Arts                        5       113
04. SkeletonKey Games                 3       34
05. LPJ Design                        13      71
06. Malhavoc Press                    10      ?
07. RPGObjects                        7       36
08. Pinnacle Entertainment Group      6       53
09. WorldWorks                        2       11
10. Microtactix                       11      100
11. Creation's Edge Games             -       12
12. The Game Mechanics, Inc.          15      14
13. Mongoose Publishing               12      15
14. Politically Incorrect Games       18      23
15. Mad Kaiser Games                  26      18
16. Expeditious Retreat Press         14      4
17. The Other Game Company            22      9
18. 0one Roleplaying Games            19      38
19. Alternate Realities Publications  30      22
20. Bloodstone Press                  27      11
21. Gold Rush Games                   21      16
22. Goodman Games                     20      10
23. VShane.com                        -       28
24. Guardians of Order                -       ?
25. Darkfuries                        29      7
26. ProFantasy Software               4       11
27. nbos Software                     9       6
28. Dark Quest Games                  -       11
29. West End Games                    -       16
30. Atlas Games                       24      17

I'm sure someone can take the ball and run with this if they want, but I'm sure you'll find some correlations between average SRPs, catalog sizes, and positioning on both charts. One thing that is obvious, a bigger catalog obviously tends to lead to higher volumes of sales.

 

[lmpjr007]

      Company                         $$     Catalog
01. Wizards of the Coast              1       808
02. E.N. Publishing                   8       31
03. Ronin Arts                        5       113
04. SkeletonKey Games                 3       34
05. LPJ Design                        13      71

WOW this is very surprsing to me! I see that I am moving a lot of product (#5) but I am not making as much money (#13) as many of my counterparts. Now the question becomes, do I try to sell more copies of product or charge a higher price for new product or a little bit of both. But is is nice to see two individuals who business model (Ronin Arts and SkeletonKey Games) tha I emulate are right above me. I gues they are doing the right thing. Thanks for the info.