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

 

[BenRiggs]

the vertical axis is number of unit sold?

Yup.

 

[BenRiggs]

@BenRiggs

That's amazing. I must admit to being a bit giddy about it.

Also I am as interested in your journey to the discovery of this information as I am in it itself. Do you cover any of that in your new book?

Here's to discovery!

Regrettably, the how I got the numbers story must remain veiled in shadow, as my source wished to remain anonymous, and almost anything I say would allow insiders to begin making deductions about the identity of my source.

 

[Hussar]

Fascinating stuff.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Waiting for the Basic set numbers and 2e. But maybe.

Yeah Basic was HUGE.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah Basic was HUGE.

But was it 5e levels of huge? From what I can glean, probably not.

 

[DarkCrisis]

But was it 5e levels of huge? From what I can glean, probably not.

No idea. But Basic blew up in Japan etc where as 5E has not, I think?

 

[Parmandur]

No idea. But Basic blew up in Japan etc where as 5E has not, I think?

5E has had a dramatic localization history, that's for sure.

 

[TerraDave]

These are Ryan Dancy's numbers, though I am looking for a better source (was it ENWorld?)

Total lifetime sales of the 1E PHB over 10 years were roughly 1.5 million units.
Total lifetime sales of the 2E/2ER PHB over 10 years were roughly .75 million units.
Total lifetime sales of the 3E/3.5E PHB over 5 years were 1 million units.
On release, the 2E PHB sold ~250K units in 12 months. The 3E PHB sold ~300K units in 30 days.

I was checking this, as 3.0 was supposed to be huge at its launch, and supposed to be catching the 1e PHB. But obviously did not catch it. The roughly 1.5 million is closish to the data here.

 

[TerraDave]

We know...

1E, from this chart, built up nicely and maintained strong sales through its 5th year before fading.
3E, 3.5, and 4E all started strong and faded pretty fast, especially 4E.

Also, we will probably see, in the coming days, that total Basic sales were greater than AD&D. 2E opened OK, but stayed flat, never coming close to 1E peaks.

And of course 5E is the world swallowing juggernaut.

 

[Parmandur]

These are Ryan Dancy's numbers, though I am looking for a better source (was it ENWorld?)



I was checking this, as 3.0 was supposed to be huge at its launch, and supposed to be catching the 1e PHB. But obviously did not catch it. The roughly 1.5 million is closish to the data here.

Yeah, launch numbers are not always sustained.