Roleplaying games, the heart and soul of the hobby games business, are having a banner year, expanding on a steady string of growth years kicked off by the launch of Dungeons & Dragons 5E in 2014. The phenomenon has spread to other games, as players introduced to the hobby by D&D expand their horizons and try new games.
“RPGs are the story of the year so far,” a hobby distributor told ICv2. “D&D’s king by leaps and bounds, don’t get me wrong, but the number of RPGs that were [significant contributors to] sales was 40 different brands.”
D&D was all over the top of the chart of the Top RPGs for Spring, with the core product line from Wizards of the Coast holding its near-permanent #1 slot, and other products built on the 5E engine grouped at #3.
Pathfinder was softer in Spring, although it still retains its position as #2 by breadth of line and longtime player base.
Renegade Game Studios’ Hasbro RPGs were new additions to the top five, selling well at launch, and there’s a wide range of titles, some on this chart of ten and others, generating major sales in 2022.
This chart of the Top RPGs reflects sales in Spring 2022 (January-April). The chart is based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers.
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ICv2’s Top 5 Roleplaying Games – Spring 2022 (Overall) |
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Rank |
Title |
Publisher |
|
1 |
Dungeons and Dragons |
Wizards of the Coast |
|
2 |
Pathfinder |
Paizo |
|
3 |
D&D 5E |
Darrington, Goodman |
|
4 |
G.I. Joe RPG |
Renegade Game Studios |
|
5 |
Power Rangers RPG |
Renegade Game Studios |
These bestseller lists are from ICv2’s Internal Correspondence #102:
For the lists of the bestselling Collectible Games in the hobby channel, mass channel, and overall, click here.
For the bestselling hobby channel Non-Collectible Miniature lines, click here.
For the bestselling Board Games & Card/Dice Games in the hobby channel, click here.
The full-length version of this article appeared in ICv2’s Internal Correspondence #102. For the full-length version of this article on the ICv2 Pro site, with the full 10-line chart, click here.
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Source: ICv2
