TSR settings sales numbers from Ben Riggs, starting with Lankmar, Maztica, Al-Qadim and Planescape!

[Parmandur]

Eh, I don't know, I am not convinced Planescape did any better than Spelljammer. They were both more 'out there' in fantasy terms, but honestly a lot of people were perfectly happy with a Greyhawk/FR style fairly generic setting. I assume that's why those were the big sellers, and why they have continued to be supported over the years while many of the niche settings have languished. Still, it doesn't surprise me at all that Spelljammer outsold stuff like Maztica, that sort of just doesn't quite hit either itch. Its not 'out there', and its not quite 'generic fantasy' either.

I'm curious, have numbers come out on OA sales? I'd assume it probably had to outsell the K-T boxed set and such...

The OA hardcover was covered in one of the first posts. It sold bery well compared to the 90's stuff, but less than GH, FR or DL.

 

[Jer]

I'm curious, have numbers come out on OA sales? I'd assume it probably had to outsell the K-T boxed set and such...

Yes here: Ben Riggs Releases Historical Sales Numbers for D&D Settings

 

[Reynard]

Usually I’m fine being wrong. But dang this one kinda stings. Just a tiny bit.

I avoided Spelljammer, Dark Sun and Planescape for similar reasons -- they looked too far removed from baseline D&D for me to feel comfortable making them my own. I didn't use FR as a setting, either, but I could steal lots of it for my own games. I played in the Known World, but becasue I was a BECMI player all the way up to Immortals. The only AD&D setting that I full embraced was Dragonlance.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

The OA hardcover was covered in one of the first posts. It sold bery well compared to the 90's stuff, but less than GH, FR or DL.

Yeah, that makes sense. It was a pretty solid offering in a lot of ways, despite some serious flaws in how it presented non-Japanese stuff (in particular, I know people have other beefs with it for various reasons which I'm definitely not claiming are OK).

 

[Jer]

Usually I’m fine being wrong. But dang this one kinda stings. Just a tiny bit.

Keep in mind that these numbers represent TSR failing to find an audience for what they were publishing. Most of that is on TSR spiraling into bankruptcy rather than any fault in the material itself. There's a trend through the 90s that can be explained by TSR just shedding customers willing to buy their stuff with each year that passes.

 

[overgeeked]

That’s really funny to me. Despite all the nose-in-the-air nonsense a lot of Planescape fans did and looking down at Spelljammer...Spelljammer actually outsold Planescape.

 

[Parmandur]

Keep in mind that these numbers represent TSR failing to find an audience for what they were publishing. Most of that is on TSR spiraling into bankruptcy rather than any fault in the material itself. There's a trend through the 90s that can be explained by TSR just shedding customers willing to buy their stuff with each year that passes.

Well, it's a weird situation where TSR's financial practices demanded a constant firehouse of product, which means needing to constantly push the boundaries. The creative side dealt with this very well, constantly finding new and more out there stuff to explore...but the audience shrinks the farther out you get, and the firehouse release strategy actually discourages sales. The 5E slow and steady approach has really worked to grow the audience over time, organically.

 

[Scribe]

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

For the MMA fans...

Planescape never die!

 

[Guest 7034872]

That’s really funny to me. Despite all the nose-in-the-air nonsense a lot of Planescape fans did and looking down at Spelljammer...Spelljammer actually outsold Planescape.

Planescape fans looked down their noses at Spelljammer?? Huh. I'm a big fan of Planescape if only because I'm a big fan of the planes and of finding some way to allow players to travel across them, but smirking at other people's fun has never made sense to me.

A: "My kind of weird is the only respectable weird; yours is just Hamsters in Space." >chuckles snottily<
Me: "And Hamsters in Space is bad because...???" (Actually, the more I look at that description, the more I like it.)

 

[Shardstone]

Planescape and Spelljammer, and I know this will sound more pretentious than it is but this is still a pretentious statement, were in no way mainstream ideas in the past, and were much more likely to resound with people who would write in one of their top 3 traits "creative." Or, in other words, a lot of people who were happy with the "box" of standard D&D were very unlikely to care about hyper-niche D&D, even if it still had elves and dwarves and what not in it. In fact, this seems to also prove that having elves and dwarves in Dark Sun really didn't help it all that much, if at all.

Meanwhile, people who prefer to approach D&D as a canvas for a lot of weird ideas they have or similar concepts likely resonated very strongly with the non-trad settings of Planescape, Spelljammer, and Dark Sun. These "outside the box" fantasy ideas showed them more ways to do things they had never imagined, whereas most consumers (and I'm pulling this all straight out of my ass) likely are just happy making stories/experiences with just the tools given, no more and no less.

I am not saying either crowd is better than the other, but this is what the data + so many people's unique perspectives seems to be telling me.

That said, still surprised that Spelljammer outsold Planescape. Kind of makes sense though. Fantasy -> Space -> Weird Mysticism probably tracks to how mainstream tastes are in movies, shows, books, comics, etc too.