Top Five RPGs in Print Sales for Spring 2020

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Lunar Ronin

Lunar Ronin

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A new report came out with the top five tabletop RPGs in print sales for spring 2020:


  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E
  2. Pathfinder 2E
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible (third party products made using the D&D 5E rules set)
  4. Starfinder
  5. Cyberpunk Red

D&D 5E and Pathfinder 2E isn't surprising. Nor is Starfinder, really. Cyberpunk Red is though, considering that the game isn't even out yet.
 
Some people really like to hate on Paizo, but my group is enjoying Starfinder, and is excited by what we’ve read in Pathfinder 2e.
 
Endless Flight said:
The news of Paizo’s demise has been greatly exaggerated.
Click to expand...
Given there are no numbers provided, the information is meaningless as it could just as easily be:


  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - 5,000,000
  2. Pathfinder 2E - 2,500,000
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible - 500,000
  4. Starfinder - 450,000
  5. Cyberpunk Red - 300,000

as

  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - 5,000,000
  2. Pathfinder 2E - 250,000
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible - 200,000
  4. Starfinder - 150,000
  5. Cyberpunk Red - 100,000
 
UnplayedRanger said:
Some people really like to hate on Paizo, but my group is enjoying Starfinder, and is excited by what we’ve read in Pathfinder 2e.
Click to expand...

I have been playing Starfinder every Saturday night for the past seven months. It's a little too crunch heavy for me, but it's not bad. About half of the same group that I play Starfinder with also plays Pathfinder 2E Tuesday nights. So I'd say Paizo is doing well enough.
 
Dumarest said:
Given there are no numbers provided, the information is meaningless as it could just as easily be:


  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - 5,000,000
  2. Pathfinder 2E - 2,500,000
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible - 500,000
  4. Starfinder - 450,000
  5. Cyberpunk Red - 300,000

as

  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - 5,000,000
  2. Pathfinder 2E - 250,000
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible - 200,000
  4. Starfinder - 150,000
  5. Cyberpunk Red - 100,000
Click to expand...

I guess. That’s like saying that anyone besides the Beatles didn’t sell many records in the 1960s.
 
Endless Flight said:
I guess. That’s like saying that anyone besides the Beatles didn’t sell many records in the 1960s.
Click to expand...
More to the point, it's analogous with claims that the Rolling Stones were "rivals" of the Beatles when they were actually a distant second.
 
Dumarest said:
More to the point, it's analogous with claims that the Rolling Stones were "rivals" of the Beatles when they were actually a distant second.
Click to expand...

I think the more interesting rivalry was between Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney in the 60s. Of course when Brian stopped during SMiLE, the rivalry was caput.
 
Endless Flight said:
The best thing Paizo does? They don’t overprice their PDFs. Pathfinder and Starfinder core are both $10 and you get huge books.
Click to expand...
Paizo vastly under price their PDF's. Yes, they have the advantage of incredible economies of scale, but the top-flight publishers are huge anomalies in this industry.

TristramEvans said:
What is Starfinder?
Click to expand...
Pathfinder in space!

It's got a lot of rules and a lot of art. I like the art.
 
Ladybird said:
Pathfinder in space!

It's got a lot of rules and a lot of art. I like the art.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Starfinder is a science-fantasy RPG using essentially Pathfinder 1.5E (a mash of rules from 1E and 2E), set in outer space. In my group's case, it was a compromise. Most of them are in their 20s or early 30s, and have only played D&D 5E and Pathfinder before. We all wanted to play a tabletop RPG together, but myself and one other person can't stand medieval fantasy. So, Starfinder it was.

It wouldn't be my first nor my second choice of game because it has a lot of crunch, but it's worked well enough.
 
Wait a second, Cyberpunk Red doesn't get released until September, right?
 
Fenris-77 said:
No, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about pairing some kind of RPG with a game of Pandemic.
Click to expand...
The storyline in the Pandemic Legacy games would make a great campaign.

Apparition said:
Yeah. Starfinder is a science-fantasy RPG using essentially Pathfinder 1.5E (a mash of rules from 1E and 2E), set in outer space. In my group's case, it was a compromise. Most of them are in their 20s or early 30s, and have only played D&D 5E and Pathfinder before. We all wanted to play a tabletop RPG together, but myself and one other person can't stand medieval fantasy. So, Starfinder it was.
Click to expand...
I know how dumb it sounds but I would be all over a 5E version.
 
Speaking of which, where is Cyberpunk Red!? Any news? Seems almost too quiet for comfort.
 
There's a Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit on Amazon as well as DriveThruRPG. I'm assuming that's a good sign...
 
TristramEvans said:
We don't have a Black Death RPG do we? Hmmmm....
Click to expand...

Not quite, I guess. There have been a couple of settings where the plague is replaced by a zombie disease: Ultima Forsan (for Savage Worlds) and Darkest Age (for D20). There's also Witch: the Road to Lindisfarne which is a gm-less game set in Britain in 1350 which seems to be based on the Nicholas Cage movie Season of the Witch. There was a Black Death adventure for the earlier editions of Ars Magica, and a Black Death Now mini-adventure for 17th Century Minimalist. A Fiasco playset titled The Plague seems to be inspired by Camus and is set in 1947 Oran.
 
Picaroon Jack said:
The release date seems pushed back due to the pandemic.
Click to expand...
Mike Pondsmith is heavily involved with the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 videogame. A lot of his tabletop projects are delayed until his work on it finishes.

And Cyberpunk was delayed TWICE this year. at least one of those delays was due to Covid.
 
KrakaJak said:
Mike Pondsmith is heavily involved with the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 videogame. A lot of his tabletop projects are delayed until his work on it finishes.

And Cyberpunk was delayed TWICE this year. at least one of those delays was due to Covid.
Click to expand...
Even after it's released, I would expect CDPR to be doing at least one expansion for it (Which is likely at least in the pre-production stage by now) so I doubt he's done with it for a while.
 
Dumarest said:
Given there are no numbers provided, the information is meaningless as it could just as easily be:


  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - 5,000,000
  2. Pathfinder 2E - 2,500,000
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible - 500,000
  4. Starfinder - 450,000
  5. Cyberpunk Red - 300,000

as

  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - 5,000,000
  2. Pathfinder 2E - 250,000
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible - 200,000
  4. Starfinder - 150,000
  5. Cyberpunk Red - 100,000
Click to expand...

as

  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - 5,000,000
  2. Pathfinder 2E - 250,000
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible - 10,000
  4. Starfinder - 1,500
  5. Cyberpunk Red - 12
 
How does Cyberpunk Red get on that list if it isn't published yet?
Or has it been published in pdf form?
 
Mankcam said:
How does Cyberpunk Red get on that list if it isn't published yet?
Or has it been published in pdf form?
Click to expand...
I'm assuming people are buying the Jumpstart Kit which has been available for at least a year. (Misread the date initially, it was 2019 not 2020.) It has a sales rank of #455 in board games on Amazon
 
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Apparition said:
A new report came out with the top five tabletop RPGs in print sales for spring 2020:


  1. Dungeons & Dragons 5E
  2. Pathfinder 2E
  3. Dungeons & Dragons 5E - compatible (third party products made using the D&D 5E rules set)
  4. Starfinder
  5. Cyberpunk Red

D&D 5E and Pathfinder 2E isn't surprising. Nor is Starfinder, really. Cyberpunk Red is though, considering that the game isn't even out yet.
Click to expand...
My rpg world is way out of what the cool kids are up to.

I have D&D 5E, the three core books (limited edition slipcase), and three or four other books.
But these days I tend to hack most things with Fate Core, and a reasonable ammount of my other stuff is invested in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest Glorantha lines, or in Design Mechanism's Mythras line.
I have also bought most of the Modiphius CONAN line, although not sure if I will play it. I also have most of Cubicle 7's Adventures in Middle Earth 5E.
Outside of that, I did buy Vampire 5th edition core rulebook earlier this year, the limited edition white cover one, it's nice to read.

So I'm way out of things here, I guess I knew that WotC and Paizo were the biggies, and that is reflected in what is on the store shelves as well.
But I would have thought Fantasy Flight, Modiphius, or Cubicle 7 would have snuck a title in there before Cyberpunk.
FFG Star Wars is the other line I always see on the shelves next to D&D 5E and Pathfinder.
Haven't seen too much of Starfinder, and I can't even remember seeing Cyberpunk.
 
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