Starfinder Outpaces Pathfinder In Fall 2017!

Starfinder outpaced Pathfinder! Wow!

 

[Morrus]

ICv2's periodical industry report has come in for Fall 2017, and the surprising news is that Paizo's Starfinder is outpacing its flagship game, Pathfinder! Of course, the effect may be temporary, as Starfinder was launched around then (and it was Paizo's fastest selling ever product at Gen Con). With D&D in its usual top spot, this is the first time Pathfinder has dropped down to #3.

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 80%, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]Dungeons & Dragons[/TD]
[TD]WotC[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]Starfinder[/TD]
[TD]Paizo Publishing[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]Pathfinder[/TD]
[TD]Paizo Publishing[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]Star Wars[/TD]
[TD]Fantasy Flight Games[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]Star Trek Adventures[/TD]
[TD]Modiphius Entertainment[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

​

So Paizo has two of the top 5 spots, and sci-fi has three of them (which is unusual in a fantasy-dominated hobby).

The top three are usually D&D, Pathfinder, and Star Wars, with the bottom two changing depending on what's new and popular that quarter.

In other news, ICv2 reports that the hobby channel was up by 5% during 2017 (making nine years' growth in a row), although collectible games were down.

As always, note that these charts are based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.

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[Alexander Kalinowski]

I am pretty happy to see Modiphius (and FFG) doing so well with genre simulation RPGs. This is encouraging.

 

[Maggan]

Trend points to success if you have the word "Star" in your title.

I have a hard time thinking that Starfinder sold at "Pathfinder levels", so from this we might discern the motivation for a 2nd edition Pathfinder.

Given this I think we can expect Pathfinder 2.0 to at least match or surpass Starfinder at launch, as fantasy most often sell better than SF. Then it becomes a question of staying power. As always with ICv2 ranking, the next one is always more interesting than the current one.

/M

 

[Morrus]

I have a hard time thinking that Starfinder sold at "Pathfinder levels", so from this we might discern the motivation for a 2nd edition Pathfinder.

Fastest moving product for Paizo ever at Gen Con 2017. I suspect you'll find it's just a blip - normally the new hotness hits positions #4 and #5 for a quarter then drops off, leaving #1-3 as D&D, PF, and SW. Because it's Paizo, this time it hit position #2. I'm willing to bet anything Pathfinder will be back at #2 next time -- but we'll see!

 

[Jester David]

Big congrats to Modiphius for Star Trek!!

 

[Alexander Kalinowski]

Trend points to success if you have the word "Star" in your title.

Well, the trend points towards well-established IPs which is a bit sad.

 

[TerraDave]

Its impressive Paizo have the 2nd and 3rd spots going into a new edition. But new Starfinder probably should be able to outperform 10 year old PF in book sales, at least for a while.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

This isn't as meaningful as folks are making it out to be. Starfinder is a new game pushed by a big company with a big installed base of a similar game. As right now it's selling the core rulebooks to the existing Pathfinder customers, which are always the biggest sellers, this isn't indicative of its staying power.

I'd gather that it falls behind the Star Wars and Star Trek RPGs, which sell to the base of Star Wars and Star Trek fans, which are surely more numerous than Pathfinder players and are already on supplements. Beyond that, I don't know. I'm expecting an economic downturn in the next year or two, which won't bode well for RPGs if the last one is any indication (though the previous downturn coincided with the D20 boom, so that might be meaningless).

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

But Star Wars and Star Treck are the most famous (no-RPG) sci-fi franchises. They are a "safe bet". And the sci-fi is a genre what get old very fast. A ten years child would be surprised when he watchs a old sci-fi movie from decades ago, and she miss a lot of modern things, for example the mobiles and tablets.