J-H
Hero
The recent posting of my first time selling anything got me curious. I did some quick categorizing of the top-selling items on DM's Guild. I used their "metal" system, and kept it to a reasonable count by only looking at the Adamantine and Mithral items, which represent some multiple of thousands in sales.
My numbers may be slightly off, as this was a manual count based on the title+cover of each item, or the description if I clicked through because I wasn't sure.
A number of these items, such as the CR-originated Blood Hunter class, are PWYW. I perhaps should have skipped the PWYW items to get a better perspective on what actually brings in dollars. Some old blog posts I found indicate that PWYW items generate revenue on 5-20% of sales.
Obviously adventures dominate, but beyond that, player options (race+class+subclass+pseudo-PHB) collectively are much more popular than DMing tools, settings, monsters, items, diseases, etc.
I was surprised to find only one book of spells. I suspect that it's easier to get DM buy-in on a 2-page class/subclass or race than it is on a list of 20-40 spells that all have to be individually reviewed and then remembered later.
My numbers may be slightly off, as this was a manual count based on the title+cover of each item, or the description if I clicked through because I wasn't sure.
| Category | Count | % Total |
| Adventure | 44 | 34% |
| Adventure Expansions | 11 | 8% |
| Class | 5 | 4% |
| Subclass/Backgrounds/Feats | 13 | 10% |
| Guide | 5 | 4% |
| Setting | 2 | 2% |
| Items | 6 | 5% |
| Crafting | 2 | 2% |
| Spells/Diseases/etc. | 3 | 2% |
| DM Resources | 13 | 10% |
| Monsters | 9 | 7% |
| Races | 5 | 4% |
| Other | 8 | 6% |
| NPCs | 2 | 2% |
| Pseudo-PHB (races+classes+spells+etc.) | 3 | 2% |
Obviously adventures dominate, but beyond that, player options (race+class+subclass+pseudo-PHB) collectively are much more popular than DMing tools, settings, monsters, items, diseases, etc.
I was surprised to find only one book of spells. I suspect that it's easier to get DM buy-in on a 2-page class/subclass or race than it is on a list of 20-40 spells that all have to be individually reviewed and then remembered later.
