Top 5 RPGs--Q2 2011

[Ahnehnois]

I am also impressed with the sales for Dragon Age. I bought it and played it once with friends. Seemed like a good beginner game with a few quirks. Nothing wrong with a rules-lite D&D I guess. I suspect a lot of its sales are directly from the original crpg, which had quite an impact.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I am very impressed to see Shadowrun hanging in there.

The Auld Grump

 

[Thanee]

Don't forget, that this is just a Q2 Sales representation.

While it does say something, it doesn't mean these are the 5 biggest games right now.

Though, there isn't that much more...

White Wolf is kinda nonexistant as of late. Same with GURPS.
Savage Worlds is also reasonably big (for RPGs, anyways), I would guess.

There's WFRP still, even though it is not in the above list.
Mutants & Masterminds.
HERO System.

And then it gets thinner and thinner. Lots of really small systems around, of course.

But it really seems that Paizo's move to step into the gap left by Wizards was a very smart one. They do offer very high quality material, too, which is surely one reason for Pathfinder's success (apart from the sizable crowd that was turned away by Wizards).

Glad to see Shadowrun doing well! It's still by far and wide the coolest RPG out there for me.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Stormonu]

Odd, I have all those games on that list.

I am somewhat saddened that the new WHF game isn't up on the top 5, but the buy-in is intimidating on it.

 

[Mercurius]

You gotta wonder what the drop off is from 2 and 3, or 3 and 4. I have no idea what actual sales are and I'm just speculating, but I'm guessing we've got something like this, with the numbers not meaning anything other than relation to each other in sales:

100 Pathfinder
80 Dungeons & Dragons
40 Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch
20 Dragon Age
10 Shadowrun

Then there's probably a bunch of games in the "5-10" range.

Again, these numbers don't mean anything, so please don't fly off the handle or start an inquisition asking "Where'd you get your information from?!" I'm just guessing what the relative sales were.

 

[Thanee]

You could just call it ###% of X (actual numbers are pure guesswork).

And yes, you need to repeat that part with the guesswork in every line.

Bye
Thanee

 

[ryushima2011]

This information is very interesting, but why is not ryushima there.

 

[Steel_Wind]

You gotta wonder what the drop off is from 2 and 3, or 3 and 4. I have no idea what actual sales are and I'm just speculating, but I'm guessing we've got something like this, with the numbers not meaning anything other than relation to each other in sales:

100 Pathfinder
80 Dungeons & Dragons
40 Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch
20 Dragon Age
10 Shadowrun

Short strokes: The drop off is huge. Way steeper than your guesses would indicate.

Below is a proportional bar graph, showing year over year in dollar sales (to date) at the retail level for RPGs sold at Black Diamond Games. Black Diamond is a very successful store in the Bay Area (in Concord, California) and its owner, Gary Ray, has given presentations on Hobby Games retailing at GAMA, has been a featured retailer by Fantasy Flight Games and writes a very popular and much-watched Blog on the experience of retailing in the Hobby Games Business, called Quest for Fun.

As it so happens, this week marks Gary's premiere as a regular guest on Chronicles: Pathfinder Podcast to talk about the business of RPGs from the retailers perspective on the show. (Well, when Episode #016 releases it will be a premiere; for now, it's just the first recording of his segment which starts this week. Ep #016 should be released in 2-3 weeks.)

So that's the source of these numbers. I believe they are in dollars of overall RPG products sold by the store to date, during the year. They are not percentage market shares, as then the numbers don't add up. (I'll clarify that when I speak to him tomorrow and update if required)

While I know there are large store variances, let alone regional differences, the below also shows the market share for each game in dollar terms, including a year over year comparison. The numbers reveal that D&D sales have been steady at Black Diamond Games, but Pathfinder took off like a bullet in 2011. Gary has called 2011 "The Year of Pathfinder" in one of his recent blogs.

Note: Black Diamond stocks the full line of all products published for both Pathfinder/Game Mastery and WotC. If they make it -- he stocks and sells the complete and entire line offered by both leading RPG publishers. These numbers are not a result of selective inventory choices in terms of the leading publishers' offerings.

 

[Tuft]

Wow, that graph is really amazing!

What's interesting too is that so *many* are increasing their numbers by such a large percentage. Gaming recession over, or "just" a successful store?

 

[mudbunny]

One thought just occurred to me - So WotC, with a greatly reduced publishing schedule, is doing essentially the same amount of sales as compared to the year before, but with (assumption incoming) a much lower overhead back in Renton.

(Note, this is not to be in any way interpreted as a slam or slight against Paizo.)