ICV2 has come out with their analysis of the sales figures for Q4 2010. They have top 5 lists for a number of different categories of games, but I wanted to zoom in on the RPGs, naturally.
- Dungeons and Dragons
- Pathfinder
- Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch
- Dragon Age
- Mutants and Masterminds
In Q3, D&D and Pathfinder were tied for 1st place, but I don’t see that as indicative of any sort of trend in favor of D&D over Pathfinder so much as normal fluctuations. I would, naturally, prefer to see an old school game in the running, but it’s interesting to see Green Ronin in there with two out of the five.
I'm curious as to where they get these sales figures from non-public companies…while it gratifies me to see Pathfinder challenging D&D for the top spot, until we get a good, reliable source for the figures they have to be seen as suspect.
Just checked the icv article. Yeah, their figures are based on "interviews with retailers, distributors," etc. So they're anecdotal, not hard.
As someone else pointed out elsewhere, unfortunately this is the "best" source of sales information our niche market currently has. Its too bad the "best" is anecdotal.