From that same page of the magazine;

Their words:

   The average store reporting unit shares to us sold at least 51 copies (55 weighted) of its Top 12 role-playing games, for a gross revenue of around $1,275.(Last month, the Top 12 role-playing games accounted for 55 copies.) For just those top games (not the whole market), these manufacturers accounted for the most weighted unit sales:

1 Wizards of the Coast   53.94%
2 White Wolf     19.13%
3 Steve Jackson       4.22%
4 Privateer Press      3.23%
5  Troll Lord     2.93%

6 Palladium     2.90%
7 Black Industries     2.65%
8 Fantasy Productions     2.38%
9 Goodman Games     1.34%

   Other......7.28%

Why post this stuff? The rankings and things?? Because it seems relevant to mnany of the arguments and debates you guys /we have on here.

- Ed C.

Going by these figures it would seem the hobby is in a far healthier state than the doomsayers would have us believe.

Quote from: DrewSo we're looking at as many as 28 000 D&D books sold a month?

That seems... pretty high, but without any other data I've nothing to go on. Maybe it's just an average month for Wizards.

 Thats NOT including places like BORDERS books, B., DALTON booksellers, JOSEPH-BETH book stores - which also sell TSR/WOTC D&D books.

The nearby BORDERS just dropped selling GURPS books (majorly disappointing me)  They DID have on shelf about 15 to 20 various current 3.5  D&D books ...AND  3 or 4 WORLD OF DARKNESS/Vampire books.

- Ed C.

Quote from: DrewGoing by these figures it would seem the hobby is in a far healthier state than the doomsayers would have us believe.

I've been saying that in various places for a year or two.

Pessimists just make a bigger noise. Maybe the MIdwest is doing better with RPGs in general.

- Ed C.

Thanx a lot for such data! They are very impressive indeed!

BTW: Have you any idea of the trends... such as, was WotC solding more/less/same amount last year or the year before and such?

I hope we will here from you with another issue too

Quote from: AlnagI hope we will here from you with another issue too

Good idea, Alnag. If Koltar makes this into a regular thing then we might be able to to start actually having some informed discussion around here.

One thing I noticed... add it all up, the average game store is selling 50 or so rpg books a month, a couple a day. I can only assume that they're also selling a heap of miniatures, CCGs, and for the comic & game stores, comics? Because you're not going to be able to run a store on two rpg books sold a day.

Quote from: Kyle AaronOne thing I noticed... add it all up, the average game store is selling 50 or so rpg books a month, a couple a day. I can only assume that they're also selling a heap of miniatures, CCGs, and for the comic & game stores, comics? Because you're not going to be able to run a store on two rpg books sold a day.

 Accurate guess there.

 Even the store I work at - we seel games OTHER than RPGs.

 For Example: AXIS & ALLIES (the Boardgames), RISK, MONOPOLY (12 different versions), SCRABBLE (3 different versions), STRATEGO, TSURO, BLOKUS,  HEROCLIX miniatures, WARHAMMER miniatures(including 40K), STAR WARS miniatures, D&D Miniatures, BATTLETECH miniatures, a whole WALL or REAPER-made miniatures, APPLES-to-APPLES (including the NEw Bibblical version), ...etc..

 Oh yeah also : MAGIC:THe Gathering the TCG, YU-GI-OH, POKEMON,  VS:The Superhero card game, PIRATES of the....constructible ship game from WIZKIDS, LORD OF THE RINGS the card game, ....

 TONS of DICE from both Chessex & KOPLOW......


oh ...also "traditional" WARGAMES  from Avalanche Press and GMT.

 And of course games like MUNCHKIN, NINJA BURGER, ILLUMINATI, SPANC from Steve Jackson Games...

OOPS!! Almost forgot the "Euro" or German-school of Board games like SETTLERS OF CATAAN, CArcassone ,  Dos Rios, Puerto Rico - we sell those too!!


- Ed C.

These figures are only covering brick-and-mortar stores, correct? I wonder how these figures compare to sales through online retailers for dead-tree material and for PDFs of the same games.

Koltar, can you think of any way to get those sales figures as well?

So really, what's the "bread & butter" of the game store? Or is a variety of things?

Quote from: KoltarTo translate...mainly because I wasn't perfect at transcribing it all.

"Raw" means raw average number of copies sold of each product reported by each store.

"wtd." means weighted unit sales is defined this way by them: To arrive at our weighted unit sales figures for role-playing games, sales on products that did not individual retailers' top-seller lists but did make enough other retailers' lists are extrapolated and are integrated into the non-sellers' charts at sales levels below their last place titles.

The turnout figure for each product tells what percentage of retailers who sell products in a specific category said that a specific product was a "top seller" for them.

So anything below a 20% on the turnout figure is pretty much less than impressive.

- Ed C.

Turnout is an interesting stat. That means that some stores do a lot of business in niche games, but everyone counts D&D as a bread and butter product line.

Quote from: Kyle AaronSo really, what's the "bread & butter" of the game store? Or is a variety of things?

I'd be really surprised if CCG's and minis (especially the prepainted variety) didn't factor in heavily.

Quote from: Kyle AaronSo really, what's the "bread & butter" of the game store? Or is a variety of things?

 It really depends on the week.

Only noticeable seasonal "trend" is that we sell more traditional "family" games the last 3 months of the year.
That is for the obvious reason of the Holidays and gift giving time of the year. Our daily and weekly sales goals tend to double and triple in mid Octrober and stasy that high till about mid-January. (NO I'm NOT posting actual numbers. By rules I gotta keep that PRIVATE)

For example : a couple of days ago I had to fill in for my manager who was sick. I did 8 hours that day....my first sakle of the days was one purchase of around $159.00 for WARHAMMER 40K miniatures...but the same guy also bought some dice...AND he had been in the store a montn ago buyng D&D books.

Those booster boxes of STAR WARS miniatures that are compatible with the RPG? The larger ones sell for $21.99 before tax. (think "UNIVERSE" and "BOUNTY HUNTERS" boxes)Customers in the past have bought 3 or 4 of those at a time.  Thats around 65 to 85 dollars right there.  THEN the same customer might buy some dice....and oh yeah - his mom wants him to pick up APPLES TO APPLES for the next family gathering.

- Ed C.

You just explained why every game company with the means to make miniatures is making them as fast as they can, even if that means cutting back on RPGs.

Quote from: RPGObjects_chuckYou just explained why every game company with the means to make miniatures is making them as fast as they can, even if that means cutting back on RPGs.

I've been saying for years now that prepainted minis are the future. Whether we like it or not it seems that's where it seems the real money is.

All I can hope for is that the revenues generated are siphoned into the production of top-notch RPG books that complement the figure lines. Wizards seem to have struck a nice balance with D&D and Star Wars, I sincerely hope that other companies follow suit. The kind of outfits where the mangement still have a personal interest in the kind of tabletop gaming we still enjoy.