Even Hasbro’s Non D&D RPGs Are Taking the Top Spots – ICv2 Reports
According to the latest rankings from ICv2, D&D tops the charts, but surprisingly, Hasbro has another contender for the most popular RPG.
ICv2 is back with its quarterly ranking of which RPGs are topping the sales charts. It’s a quick measurement that focuses entirely on the only thing that truly matters (at least to capitalism) sales numbers. It’s hard to argue with cold hard data about cold hard cash.
And according to ICv2’s latest report for Fall 2022, D&D is the tops with Pathfinder a distant second. But what’s interesting are the next three on the list. Let’s take a look at the top RPGs for Fall 2022.
D&D Dominates Fall 2022, But Hasbro Has Another RPG Too
As has pretty much always been the case, D&D tops the chart. This is no new trend, and in fact, it took the launch of 4th Edition and its subsequent bungling to knock D&D out of the top spot. And even then, Pathfinder was the game that stepped up in its stead. Which was basically D&D 3.75 instead of 3.5, as fans were fond of saying at the time.
D&D is such a monolithic power in the tabletop industry, it was a significant problem when it looked like WotC might have been trying to revoke the OGL earlier this year. It’s important to understand just how much influence WotC, and by extension Hasbro, wields in this industry. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the top charts. Because not only is D&D number one, but it’s also the number 3 spot.
Though interestingly enough, it’s 3rd party 5E material, meaning 5E produced outside of WotC that accounts for the third most popular sales. These are your Kobold Press books and your independent 5E publishers. From big settings to small books, whatever might be carried through retailers, distributors, and whoever else ICv2 speaks with to generate these charts.
Not far behind is Vampire: the Masquerade, and the new Transformers RPG. This is the second RPG produced by Renegade Game Studios. And the second RPG is about a Hasbro property, though this one is a little more directly Hasbro and not WotC.
All of which goes to show, the industry might be growing, but at the top? It’s the same big fish taking even bigger bites.
It’ll be curious to see how, if at all, the tides change come Spring 2023’s numbers.
