D&D General The most played D&D Adventure of all time

[Zardnaar]

How does Baldur's Gate 3's sales compare to those?

KoToR got 3.2 million in its first 4 years apparently. Recently got re-released on switch. Still actively played. Personally I've played it dozens of times. Recently as wife bought it on Switch so we did it togather (I used Xbox). That was 4 or 5 more pkaythroughs.

BG2 was around 2 million early on not sure on lifetime sales.

BG3 is over 20 million on steam alone apparently. Console sales idk.

Might have a new winner.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't have data on what percentage either chart represents of total sales. Do you?

The TSR numbers appear to he the whole numbers, as far as TSR understoof them in the 90's. As to 5E,I refer to @Alphastream analysis, which Ray Ainninger reaponded to on Twitter by saying that the BookScan numbers were, in fact, incomplete:

"There is another source we can use. In 2019, Bloomberg wrote an article about professional DMs. In it, they share sales numbers for the D&D Starter Set. They call these “North America Unit Sales” and provide both a chart and numbers. The table is per year, so we have to add each previous year to find the total to match the BookScan graph. The closest number I could find on the Roll for Combat YouTube video is on Jan 12, 2015, when the Starter had 44,665. Extrapolating from the weekly sales around that time, the end of 2014 has roughly 42,915 sales for the Starter Set. This is 34% of the amount shared on Forbes. If the Forbes data included international sales, it might be a slightly smaller percentage. We could take 34% as an upper bound. In fact, when I try to extrapolate other values, the average I get is actually around 34%."

"So, from both the PH reported sales and the Starter Sets on Forbes, we might estimate BookScan is between 23-34% of actual sales. This is, of course, a fallible estimate in the absence of more data."

Estimating D&D’s Revenue | Alphastream

The BookScan data gives us a potential window into estimating D&D’s overall revenue, especially when combined with previous clues. If we can estimate the percentage BookScan might be of D&#038…

alphastream.org

 

[Mannahnin]

That's wild. B1 has some nice rooms (the pool room is iconic) but it's a much worse intro module than B2, which is presumably why it was replaced in the boxed sets.

I actually think it's a better intro module, personally. More exploring, fewer monster-packed lairs inviting nonstop combat. Both have similar tutorial/teaching text for the DM. I think Gary built on what Mike wrote.

No, it was replaced so that Gary Gygax would get the royalty per box sold instead of Mike Carr.

Yup. As Jon Peterson explained back in 2021.

How a pending lawsuit changed the original Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set

Jon Peterson uncovers the hidden history of the Holmes Basic Set

www.polygon.com

 

[Orius]

I'd have to concur that B2 and Phandelver are probably in the top two. The biggest ones are going to be introductory adventures, and these two are the most well known. While we know how many copies of each sold, there's no way of knowing how many were actually played though.

My guess for #3 would be X1 as it was included in both Expert sets and probably for longer than B2. I doubt it would be outside the top 5.

Not really sure what other adventures or modules were extremely popular or where they would be on the list. Nor am I sure how the biggest of the classics compare to 5e's best sellers. I6 is the only other one I can think of that's probably pretty high.

Wouldn't it be funny if Terrible Trouble at Tragidore (the adventure with the 2E DM's screen) was the most played adventure of that era?

2E does have a few adventures that come up in conversation (e.g. Night Below, Dead Gods), but they tend to be massive campaign adventures that likely weren't played by that many.

It's definitely worth mentioning the Judges' Guild modules, though I have a suspicion they're much more influential amongst designers than widely played. (I have physical copies of neither. Argh!)

Cheers,
Merric

Not likely for Tragidore. 2e had a drop off in popularity, and Tragidore is fairly mediocre too. 2e's biggest is probably Night Below, but it probably just barely makes the top 10 at best. I'd imagine it is in the top 20. It stayed in print until the end of the edition IIRC, and it's one of the biggest sellers on the DM's guild.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

KoToR got 3.2 million in its first 4 years apparently. Recently got re-released on switch. Still actively played. Personally I've played it dozens of times. Recently as wife bought it on Switch so we did it togather (I used Xbox). That was 4 or 5 more pkaythroughs.

BG2 was around 2 million early on not sure on lifetime sales.

BG3 is over 20 million on steam alone apparently. Console sales idk.

Might have a new winner.

Maybe we do have a new winner. Do you have any links to back up your numbers?

My gut feeling is like yours... BG3 crushed it. But I like to have some hard facts on my side before I get definitive though.

 

[Mannahnin]

I'd have to concur that B2 and Phandelver are probably in the top two. The biggest ones are going to be introductory adventures, and these two are the most well known. While we know how many copies of each sold, there's no way of knowing how many were actually played though.

My guess for #3 would be X1 as it was included in both Expert sets and probably for longer than B2. I doubt it would be outside the top 5.

Not really sure what other adventures or modules were extremely popular or where they would be on the list. Nor am I sure how the biggest of the classics compare to 5e's best sellers. I6 is the only other one I can think of that's probably pretty high.

Not likely for Tragidore. 2e had a drop off in popularity, and Tragidore is fairly mediocre too. 2e's biggest is probably Night Below, but it probably just barely makes the top 10 at best. I'd imagine it is in the top 20. It stayed in print until the end of the edition IIRC, and it's one of the biggest sellers on the DM's guild.

Agree with all of this. Tragidore was TERRIBLE, and I could tell that on initial read and never played it despite getting it with the DM's screen.

My guess is Phandelver, Keep on the Borderlands, Isle of Dread, in that order.

 

[Echohawk]

Tragidore was TERRIBLE, and I could tell that on initial read and never played it despite getting it with the DM's screen.

Tragidore was the first published adventure I owned. I'd bought all the AD&D hardcovers, but none of the adventures. Foolishly, I assumed it would be decent, and tried to run it. It was not decent. The experience was so bad, that I didn't touch another published adventure for more than two decades. Fortunately the next one (Red Hand of Doom) was a much nicer experience.

 

[Zardnaar]

Maybe we do have a new winner. Do you have any links to back up your numbers?

My gut feeling is like yours... BG3 crushed it. But I like to have some hard facts on my side before I get definitive though.

It's what Google spat out.

 

[Scott Christian]

I'd listen to a case for "peripheral" but I think "inner circle" is gilding the lily a bit much for WPM.

You're probably right. I just have such fond memories of that adventure that it skews my opinion.