D&D General TSR D&D sales numbers compiled by Benjamin Riggs

D&D historian Ben Riggs--author of the upcoming Slaying the Dragon, which is a history of TSR-era (not that TSR, the real one) D&D--compiled some sales figures of AD&D 1st Edition's Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide from 1979-1990.

Behold! Some actual D&D sales numbers!

While working on my book #SlayingtheDragon I got a ton of primary source documents containing sales data for D&D. With the book coming out, I've been looking for a way to get that data out into the wide world. I'm going to start making charts, and simply posting them. If people want the raw data, I can post that too, but obviously, charts are prettier.

I'm starting with AD&D 1st ed Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide. You'll notice a crash in the mid-80s, and then the sales peter out with the release of 2nd edition.

The sales point to a fact that I believe hasn't been given enough play in our hobby. Namely, TSR was in a tight spot when Lorraine Williams took over the company from Gary Gygax. If it weren't for Lorraine, D&D may have died in the mid-80s.

Just an idea for your consideration...

Oh, and if you haven't preordered my book on D&D history yet, I'll put a link in the comments.

Go get his book! It’s going to be interesting!

Slaying the Dragon - Macmillan

The secret and untold story of how TSR, the company that created Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, then ...

read.macmillan.com

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I don't know what to say. I'm glad that was awesome for you. Heck, in my neck of the woods no one cared about the transition from 3e to 4e, so I guess that was no big deal either, right?

....all I can do is reiterate what I saw then, and what I continue to see today. There were a fair number of people that did not react well to 2e. Even today (EVEN TODAY!) there are people that still react against 2e.

I can keep telling you this. I can provide the reasons. Others can tell you. I'm glad you didn't notice. Doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Sure, nobody is disputing that in some part of the world there was some sort of stink about it. FRANKLY, I think a ton of the commentary on that which exists today is post hoc, like people arguing about stuff that they were barely aware of at the time, or was even before their time. The biggest beef I heard back in the day was the stupid way AC still counted backwards (but that was obviously necessary if you wanted to have true compatibility). I remember one of my friends actually wrote up a 3e-style AC house rule, but IIRC he got tired of explaining it to everyone after a while and just went back to THAC0 after a couple months.

 

[BenRiggs]

Basic D&D Sales Numbers here:

 

[Jer]

Basic D&D Sales Numbers here:

That first boost for the Basic set in 1983 is probably because that's when the Mentzer Basic Set was released. The smaller boost for Basic D&D in 1991 was probably for the "Black Box" D&D Basic set. (And Moldvay Basic was in 1981). So there might be a bit of apples to oranges comparison going on here since the graph is showing essentially 4 different "editions" of Basic D&D in some sense vs. just 1st edition AD&D - and I say that as a B/X booster. ("editions" in quotes because the differences across at least the last 3 of those Basic sets isn't even as much as the differences between 1e and 2e AD&D).

From down the thread, this is one that I've never heard:


I had always heard that it had gotten too expensive to have both D&D and AD&D as separate brands. And that made sense to me because, well, it seems like supporting both games would have to be expensive and while the 2e numbers haven't been posted yet I have to believe that it was outselling Basic D&D by the time they decided to make the cut.

 

[darjr]

Bens main graph for those without facebook. Wow! I knew about the > 600,000 figure but this is amazing to see.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Honestly, I don't think TSR really ever had much of a 'product strategy', certainly not before the advent of Williams. Different people within TSR birthed various products, based on a variety of reasons and expediencies, and perhaps just plain rivalry, and TSR sold them. If a product sold, they kept selling it until it didn't sell anymore, and then probably someone would suggest a revised version.

I mean, HAD THEIR BEEN A PLAN, then Basic and Advanced D&D would almost surely have represented a pair of games which dovetailed cleanly together and where each one performed some sort of function within an overall product line. I think there were glimmerings of ideas of doing such things, but the company was really not organized or lead well enough to execute on a plan at all. Gary couldn't be bothered coming up with, or articulating, some product line going forward from the original game, so Holmes was off on his own somewhere creating Basic, which was a product that didn't really fit that well with what Gary was doing. I mean, maybe it would have, but Gary was too busy making up a whole new version of the game that didn't mesh with Eric's work at all. It would have made vastly more sense for Holmes work to have been a 1-3rd level intro to AD&D. It would have made more sense if Moldvay's efforts had been directed that way as well, but he was off working in some 'other TSR' that apparently was in love with the original rules and didn't care about whatever Gary's TSR was doing!

Honestly, I think all that kept the whole enterprise going for as long as it did was just the fact that there was so much low-hanging fruit in terms of the product itself, it really couldn't fail.

 

[darjr]

Again, if you want the book with a cool original art book plate signed by Ben go here.

Promo - Macmillan

Slaying the Dragon Sweepstakes

read.macmillan.com

I've preordered mine.

 

[darjr]

Second edition tomorrow!

 

[DarkCrisis]

So comparing Basic's sales in the same amount of time to 5E (8 years?), hows that looking?

 

[darjr]

D&D General - Basic D&D Was Selling 600,000+/Year At One Point

Recently Ben Riggs shared some sales figures of AD&D 1st Edition. Now he has shared figures for Basic D&D from 1979-1995, and during the early 80s is was selling 500-700K copies per year. Ben Riggs' book, Slaying the Dragon, which is a history of TSR-era D&D, comes out soon, and you can...

www.enworld.org

 

[Parmandur]

So comparing Basic's sales in the same amount of time to 5E (8 years?), hows that looking?

The big difference that we know of is that sales didn't collapse in 2020, but actually accelerated, so the spread is very different.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

It is, but that has to do with thr growth of the marketplace more than anything else.

After all, the 2nd best selling edition of DnD was 4e!

Followed by 3.5, then 3e, ect.

Yeah and sales numbers does not mean good quality. Just look how hard 4e tanked soon after, as I always expected.

 

[John Lloyd1]

Does anyone know how the books returned by Random House are treated in these figures?

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Yeah and sales numbers does not mean good quality. Just look how hard 4e tanked soon after, as I always expected.

sigh on the edition bashing

 

[CleverNickName]

sigh on the edition bashing

Yeah, this was inevitable.

 

[Blackmoor_Film]

This is truly wonderful data.

Gonna have to get a copy of this book.

 

[Zardnaar]

Having just finished The Game Wizards by Jon Peterson, this bit gives me pause:



No one knows what would have happened otherwise, but I am not sure painting Williams as a hero coming into the "save D&D" is the right way to go.

Objectively she did. D&D needed cash and she provided it. Doesn't really matter what she did after that but absolutely you can argue that.

Blumes, Lorraine and WotC objectively all saved D&D at one point. Subjective if you liked what they did.

 

[Zardnaar]

Knowing some of what is in the book via Bens talks and podcasts and readings, Lorraine is, INMHO treated fairly based on facts, and still comes out looking not great. But I think it’s fair and true to say she righted a sinking ship. Maybe she steared it to the rocks at the same time though.

She bought a sinking ship, patched it and then drove it onto the rocks and sold it to a salvage company.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh, for sure. Just hang out at any OSR or old school D&D FB group. Anything not OD&D or 1e will inevitably have someone blast it. Even 2e.

Basic is usually safe as well. 2E onwards not so much.

 

[Alzrius]

So comparing Basic's sales in the same amount of time to 5E (8 years?), hows that looking?

I'm curious about this too. According to that last graph, the AD&D 1E PHB and DMG combined sold what looks like 2.95 million units, while Basic D&D sold what looks like 3.5 million. How does this compare to either the combined 5E Basic sets or the 5E PB and DMG? I can recall WotC publishing infographics about things like player demographics, but not with regard to the actual number of books sold. Was that information ever released?

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm curious about this too. According to that last graph, the AD&D 1E PHB and DMG combined sold what looks like 2.95 million units, while Basic D&D sold what looks like 3.5 million. How does this compare to either the combined 5E Basic sets or the 5E PB and DMG? I can recall WotC publishing infographics about things like player demographics, but not with regard to the actual number of books sold. Was that information ever released?

Nope they just claimed most successful ever which people took to mean peak D&D.

But Basic and 2E were sold at the same time and basic continued into the 90's.

I've seen claims TSR revenue peaked in the 80's as well they were just losing money though. Dragon was hitting 100k a month in 92 and the novels were apparently out performing D&D itself until they abused that system.

In 4 years though ,5E starter sold 800k in NA. Red box almost hit that in one year.

Adjusted for inflation TSRs 83 revenue was bigger than the rpg market not that long ago.

I got chewed out on the forums when I pointed this out though.

It might be the biggest single version if D&D but may not have been peak D&D 4-5 years ago but it depends on how you measure it I suppose.

Even numbers thrown around have been distorted as people have claimed D&D lifetime players as active 5E players.

Biggest selling D&D ever is combined sales of Basic though with 5E being a maybe. Have the various started sets and phb outsold ye olde basic? No idea.