Top 5 RPGS Of Fall 2016 As Hobby Games Grow 10%

A few days ago, ICv2 released its latest set of quarterly figures for for hobby channel sales of tabletop roleplaying games. As always, these figures are based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. The latest figures are for Fall 2016. No big surprises - the top four didn't change, while #5 switched from Green Ronin's Fantasy/Dragon Age to Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. The hobby game market as a whole grew yet again in 2016, by about 10%, with the hobby being regarded as "now-mainstream" (that's hobby games as a whole - board, card, miniature, dice, and roleplaying games).

1	Dungeons and Dragons	Wizards of the Coast
2	Pathfinder	Paizo
3	Star Wars	Fantasy Flight Games
4	Shadowrun	Catalyst Game Labs
5	Call of Cthulu 7th Edition	Chaosium

 

[Hussar]

I had a rather bizarre experience this weekend. Bunch of relative strangers; we were all doing a training course together - went out for drinks after the first day of training. Few drinks down range and two or three of the, oh, about 10 people around the table, start talking about board games and D&D. It was just such a change from what I was used to. I can honestly say I don't recall anyone just bringing up gaming in a group of strangers like that.

So, yeah, I can see why they might call gaming - mainstream.

 

[Koloth]

With the huge adoption rates for smartphone and the growth in phone gaming, acceptance for gaming in general should rise. Kind of hard to look down your nose at RPGs when it is buried in your phone trying to find that new Pokemon or launch your counter strike.

 

[Aldarc]

I had a rather bizarre experience this weekend. Bunch of relative strangers; we were all doing a training course together - went out for drinks after the first day of training. Few drinks down range and two or three of the, oh, about 10 people around the table, start talking about board games and D&D. It was just such a change from what I was used to. I can honestly say I don't recall anyone just bringing up gaming in a group of strangers like that.

So, yeah, I can see why they might call gaming - mainstream.

I had a similar experience several years ago with a bunch of seminarians, pastors, and religious scholars all sitting around a pub table talking about the D&D games and RPG systems they were playing. This phenomenon may be indebted to a series of overlapping trends that are starting to have a noticeable effect. But I will say that tabletop games now seem regarded as a viable alternative means of in-person socialization.

 

[darjr]

Me too. My boss at work asked if I'd run a lunch game. So I did. It was very surreal at first. Time constraints have stopped me but we still have a gaming lunch. And folks have all but begged me to start up the campaign.

Edit: that sounds so very self serving and boastful. Bleh.

 

[darjr]

Did I kill the thread?

I do wish we would have been capturing Amazon sales rank along with those numbers. It would be interesting to see the graphs.

 

[Hussar]

For S&G's, I took a look at 5e's sales ranks on Amazon. HOLY CRAP. The 5e PHB is still in the top 100 of all books on Amazon. WOW. I mean, this is a THREE YEAR OLD book. Pretty much nothing in the top 100 is that old. I mean there's some odds and sods, mostly perennial children's books like Dr. Seuss, but, good grief. They're licensed to print money.

 

[Henry]

Most surreal moment for me was making a joke about raining so heavily "it was raining cats and scimitars" and someone knew what I meant. i work in a geek-heavily field, but that blew my mind.

 

[aramis erak]

Mearls has said, repeatedly, that 5E has outsold each other edition individually within the first year... it's no surprise it's still selling.

 

[jedijon]

Smart phones haven't made gaming mainstream.

Comic movies have.

In what universe is the shame/guilty pleasure of clicking a button anonymously the same as saying to another human being, "you approach the throne while the hair on the back of your neck stands up, soft murmurs arise from the ground beneath your feet and a flinty voice announces 'come closer mortal'!"? Naw, not buying it.