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

 

[Mannahnin]

I will say I'm truly surprised that the DMG sold about as many copies as the PH, though; in that in theory there's several players per DM and in theory (as per the marketing) each player was to have their own PH. Seems most groups might have had one or two copies of each book that were shared around the table as needed.

I don't recall ever being in a (non-online) group where everybody had a copy of the rules. It's always generally been 1-2 PHBs between us.

I think it's pretty well established by now that, in the aggregate, that theory is a bust: most books are bought by DMs, per WotC, players borrow them from their DM.

DMs tend to be more completist/have bigger collections, certainly. Some players purely borrow. Others pick up maybe one core book. IME really dedicated players who care about the rules do tend to get at least all the core books.

As a young player, even not really knowing how or being inclined to DM, I certainly wanted the 1E DMG because it had all the combat charts and saving throws in it! I couldn't actually make a character without it.

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

OP here! Thanks to dajr for reposting from Facebook!

FYI I have pretty much all the core books numbers for 1979 through 1999. For settings, I have flagship product numbers, but almost nothing else.
I have almost no novel numbers.

The great exception to this is Dark Sun. For Dark Sun, I have every product, and every novel's sales through '99.

With a book coming out on the 19th on TSR history, I'm planning on dropping a chart a day on D&D sales for the foreseeable future. There is no data I have that I'm planning on sitting on.

Ben, where are you posting these?
I’m looking forward to your book (already preordered), I’m a sucker for these historical review books. I haven’t read Game Wizards by Jon Peterson yet but am tempted to grab it too. Do you know if there’s any overlap between the two books?

 

[darjr]

Ben, where are you posting these?
I’m looking forward to your book (already preordered), I’m a sucker for these historical review books. I haven’t read Game Wizards by Jon Peterson yet but am tempted to grab it too. Do you know if there’s any overlap between the two books?

I’ll post his posts here, and the Game Wizards is a must buy, imho

But check his Facebook and Twitter.

 

[darjr]

Mike Mearls used to say that if Basic-Expert was just D&D, with no AD&D style, TSR probably could have just iterated on it forever.

The only numbers I can find for the 5E starter Set are a bit old, from before the Essentials Kit and variant Starter Sets:

View attachment 252814

The Rise of the Professional Dungeon Master

Nerd culture, Stranger Things, and the gig economy have created a world where Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts host games for $500.

www.bloomberg.com

No wonder Target wanted their own.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Ben, where are you posting these?
I’m looking forward to your book (already preordered), I’m a sucker for these historical review books. I haven’t read Game Wizards by Jon Peterson yet but am tempted to grab it too. Do you know if there’s any overlap between the two books?

I am completely getting this book when it's out. I'll probably post a review here, too. I tend to do that.

I cannot recommend Game Wizards highly enough. It is absolutely fascinating. That said, it Peterson's book has a very heavy focus on the early (70s) TSR era, and on the Gygax/Arneson .... issues ... and the history of TSR leading up to Gygax's ouster. But it doesn't go past that.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I am completely getting this book when it's out. I'll probably post a review here, too. I tend to do that.

I cannot recommend Game Wizards highly enough. It is absolutely fascinating. That said, it Peterson's book has a very heavy focus on the early (70s) TSR era, and on the Gygax/Arneson .... issues ... and the history of TSR leading up to Gygax's ouster. But it doesn't go past that.

Rigg's book is the peanut butter to Peterson's chocolate.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I wonder how much of 2e's smaller sales were due to 2e being backwards compatible with 1e (thus not creating the need to buy it), and it being a reaction to the Satanic panic to be more family friendly by removing demons, devils, half-orcs, and assassins (which upset a lot of players)?

I don't think that was a big factor. In fact, it is kind of the opposite, 1e had already faded by the late '80s. 2e's popularity just took off from where 1e left off. There was definitely a bump in the beginning as everyone that was playing 1e 'upgraded'. After that people mostly played 2e, it really did displace 1e to a large extent as 'core rules', but in practice it was not a different enough game to attract a lot of new audiences when there were plenty of other high quality RPGs out there. I guess in a sense compatibility 'held it back' but it wasn't a matter of people just going on and playing with their 1e books still. There just wasn't that many people being added to the ranks. I mean, between 1975 and 1985 I must have introduced 100 people to D&D, and built a pretty solid core group of 30-40 players that I could count on to be interested in a game. There were other groups that mine overlapped with too.

After around 1986 or so things kind of just leveled off and became a lot more static. I mean, yes, I've acquired some additional players in various games in the last 35 years here and there, but its never been anything like the early days. Surely it seems like D&D itself really didn't start an upward trend again until the mid '00s. People came in, some left, there were a couple edition releases in there that created some stir, but not a ton. Somewhere around 3.5/4e it seemed like the whole industry had gotten enough bigger to support a bigger D&D, and its been growing again since then. Now, that isn't to say the whole hobby didn't grow from 1985 to 2005, just that D&D was not growing as much and the whole thing became a lot more spread out. If you were to look at product sales in the early to mid '80s I can pretty much guarantee, D&D was 95% of everything (in the US), which is not so much true now.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I don't think that was a big factor. In fact, it is kind of the opposite, 1e had already faded by the late '80s. 2e's popularity just took off from where 1e left off. There was definitely a bump in the beginning as everyone that was playing 1e 'upgraded'. After that people mostly played 2e, it really did displace 1e to a large extent as 'core rules', but in practice it was not a different enough game to attract a lot of new audiences when there were plenty of other high quality RPGs out there. I guess in a sense compatibility 'held it back' but it wasn't a matter of people just going on and playing with their 1e books still. There just wasn't that many people being added to the ranks. I mean, between 1975 and 1985 I must have introduced 100 people to D&D, and built a pretty solid core group of 30-40 players that I could count on to be interested in a game. There were other groups that mine overlapped with too.

After around 1986 or so things kind of just leveled off and became a lot more static. I mean, yes, I've acquired some additional players in various games in the last 35 years here and there, but its never been anything like the early days. Surely it seems like D&D itself really didn't start an upward trend again until the mid '00s. People came in, some left, there were a couple edition releases in there that created some stir, but not a ton. Somewhere around 3.5/4e it seemed like the whole industry had gotten enough bigger to support a bigger D&D, and its been growing again since then. Now, that isn't to say the whole hobby didn't grow from 1985 to 2005, just that D&D was not growing as much and the whole thing became a lot more spread out. If you were to look at product sales in the early to mid '80s I can pretty much guarantee, D&D was 95% of everything (in the US), which is not so much true now.

I was in the military in the 90s, all of that time overseas. I know this is purely anecdotal, but I think a big reason why 2e didn't recover back to 1e sales was because Werewolf/Vampire seemed to take over the popularity for RPGs (1e didn't really have that competition), but Magic is what really took over. Again, because I was in the military (where portability is important because you're deployed a lot), having a few decks of cards vs. several books was a no brainer. Also, it was the fad that was spiking at the time as well.

 

[Mannahnin]

I don't think that was a big factor. In fact, it is kind of the opposite, 1e had already faded by the late '80s. 2e's popularity just took off from where 1e left off. There was definitely a bump in the beginning as everyone that was playing 1e 'upgraded'. After that people mostly played 2e, it really did displace 1e to a large extent as 'core rules', but in practice it was not a different enough game to attract a lot of new audiences when there were plenty of other high quality RPGs out there. I guess in a sense compatibility 'held it back' but it wasn't a matter of people just going on and playing with their 1e books still. There just wasn't that many people being added to the ranks. I mean, between 1975 and 1985 I must have introduced 100 people to D&D, and built a pretty solid core group of 30-40 players that I could count on to be interested in a game. There were other groups that mine overlapped with too.

After around 1986 or so things kind of just leveled off and became a lot more static. I mean, yes, I've acquired some additional players in various games in the last 35 years here and there, but its never been anything like the early days. Surely it seems like D&D itself really didn't start an upward trend again until the mid '00s. People came in, some left, there were a couple edition releases in there that created some stir, but not a ton. Somewhere around 3.5/4e it seemed like the whole industry had gotten enough bigger to support a bigger D&D, and its been growing again since then. Now, that isn't to say the whole hobby didn't grow from 1985 to 2005, just that D&D was not growing as much and the whole thing became a lot more spread out. If you were to look at product sales in the early to mid '80s I can pretty much guarantee, D&D was 95% of everything (in the US), which is not so much true now.

This matches pretty well with my observations, though I was still a kid when I got on board in 1985, and missed the whole original wave.

One point I'd note that I definitely remember, is that not every 1E player even switched to 2E. Some folks were content with their old rules and the house rules they'd adopted to make them work the way they wanted, and had no interest in re-buying a new edition from TSR.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

This matches pretty well with my observations, though I was still a kid when I got on board in 1985, and missed the whole original wave.

One point I'd note that I definitely remember, is that not every 1E player even switched to 2E. Some folks were content with their old rules and the house rules they'd adopted to make them work the way they wanted, and had no interest in re-buying a new edition from TSR.

I would go further, and say that there was a small, but sizeable, contingent of 1e players that did not like 2e at all- it was anathema to them.

No matter how minute the changes to editions might appear in retrospect, I am unable to think of any edition change that did not have ... if not warring, let's say "pushback."