The Favourite Official D&D Products Ranked

Looking at EN World's reviews area, where the ratings of commenters are aggregated, it's interesting to look at which are the favourite official D&D books an which are less well-regarded. I've taken the items with 10 or more reviews and ranked them in descending order. Volo's Guide to Monsters is by far the favourite product, with Hoard of the Dragon Queen at the bottom of the list.

1. Volo's Guide to Monsters (95.5%)
2. Tomb of Annihilation (92.5%)
3. D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide (92%)
4. D&D 5th Edition Basic Rules (91%)
5. D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual (90.5%)
6. D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook (90%)
7. Curse of Strahd (89.5%)
8. D&D 5th Edition Starter Set (87.5%)
9. Princes of the Apocalypse (87%)
10. Deluxe Dungeon Master's Screen (83%)
11. Out of the Abyss (80.5%)
12. The Rise of Tiamat (75%)
13. Tales from the Yawning Portal (69%)
14. Xanathar's Guide to Everything (67.5%)
15. Storm King's Thunder (67%)
16. Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (61.5%)
17. Hoard of the Dragon Queen (52.5%)
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[Gradine]

Not surprised to see Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide at the bottom, especially HotDQ. That was a terrible first outing for an adventure campaign when launching a new/revised game system. Not to say it didn't have some good moments in it and good production values, but from the first page of the adventure it stank and could only get better. I guess it was the result of those 2 books that forced WotC's hand by choosing not to out-source more keep books from then on.

To be fair, RoT was far better received than HotDQ (though the damage had already been done on that storyline, I guess), but PotA was also out-sourced and was extremely well received. I'm not sure it was fan reaction that caused them to stop out-sourcing. I'd buy it more as a reason for them to stop splitting storylines into two books.

 

[Morrus]

Found Tomb of Annihilation hidden away because whoever added it misspelled "Wizards of the Coast". I've fixed that now! It comes in second!

 

[Schmidt Gerg]

Now, to be fair, this is ranked in TOTAL UNIT SALES TO DATE, so stuff that has been out longer has an advantage.

I agree whit you. I doubt the low rank of Xanathar's Guide to Everything here shows its popularity, on Amazon almost as many costumers wrote recommendations to it like to Volo's Guide (but Volo is 1 year older) and Xanathar got more than any other D&D 5e books (except the cores, and Volo yet). Which means to me Xanathar is maybe the most popular since the 3 core books.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Which means to me Xanathar is maybe the most popular since the 3 core books.

It does seem that way. Though (having been in the business 25 years) I've always found that the sales of player-related product dwarfs the sales of adventures and non-core DM material.

 

[SolidPlatonic]

Interesting that Storm King's Thunder (my favorite of the adventures, all of which I've played other than Princes) is ranked second only to Tomb of Annihilation at RPG Geek. Yet on this list it is ranked lowest except for Hoard of the Dragon Queen....

 

[Yaarel]

My takeaways from this interesting thread.

• The corebooks, PH, DMG, and MM, are all in the top 10 percentile.

• There is a difference between good reviews and high sales. Good reviews tend to indicate the quality of the product. High sales tends to indicate whether the material is meeting the needs of a wider group of people.

• I finally have a convenient reference to keep track of all those acronyms.

 

[Morrus]

My takeaways from this interesting thread.

• The corebooks, PH, DMG, and MM, are all in the top 10 percentile.

Nope. Average score for all products is 74%.

There is a difference between good reviews and high sales. Good reviews tend to indicate the quality of the product. High sales tends to indicate whether the material is meeting the needs of a wider group of people.

Nope. Aggregated scores by definition tend to indicate wider needs, not intrinsic quality. Scores track with sales fairly well.

 

[Yaarel]

Not sure what you mean here.

Nope. Average score for all products is 74%.

I specifically mentioned PH, DMG, and MM. These are the core books.

This is their rankings.

3. D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide (92%)
5. D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual (90.5%)
6. D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook (90%)

All of the core books are 90% and higher, meaning they are in the ‘top 10 percentile’, which is a good foundation for the rest of the game.

 

[Morrus]

Not sure what you mean here.


I specifically mentioned PH, DMG, and MM. These are the core books.

This is their rankings.

3. D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide (92%)
5. D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual (90.5%)
6. D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook (90%)

All of the core books are 90% and higher, meaning they are in the ‘top 10 percentile’, which is a good foundation for the rest of the game.

That is not the top 10 percentile if the average score is 74. That’s not what that term means.

 

[Yaarel]

Aggregated scores by definition tend to indicate wider needs, not intrinsic quality. Scores track with sales fairly well.

From what I understand, these are aggregated scores of *reviewers* who wrote reviews, that is critics.

With regard to sales, players have a need for player content, thus PH and Xanathars will tend to see higher sales to meet the need, even if it would be of less quality. But the critic would evaluate it on other merits, besides raw need. To be fair, there is some overlap. For example, if a player content product was of noticeably poor quality, it wouldnt fulfill the need for it either. My main point here is, the critical reviews and the sales volume can be different for legitimate reasons.