Friday, April 12, 2013

The Sales Life of Warhammer Rules, Codexes and Army Books

I found the following information on line. As I understand it, the information was included in the material Games Workshop presented as part of the Chapterhouse lawsuit (GW are suing CHS for copyright infringement).


I'm going to make the assumption that these are USD and relate to sales in the USA.

There's a lot of interesting info in there. Here's a few of my observations:

  • Using rulebook sales as a guide, 40k sells about 3x Fantasy
  • A new edition sells about 50-60% of its volume in the year it is released (5th Ed 40k was more front-ended which suggests it failed to attract new customers at a similar rate to 7th Ed Fantasy or 4th Ed 40k. I'd love to know 8th Ed Fantasy trends)
  • Eldar 2006 Codex was better long term seller than previous version - I'm surprised
  • High Elves are bigger seller than Empire
  • Tau died.......Empire, what empire?
  • It looks like Space Marines really need a new codex....the last version was major flop.

5 comments:

  1. Something wrong with those figures or do they seriously expect us to believe that they only sold 1 copy of the new WHFB 8th rulebook in 2011?

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    Replies
    1. It's 7th Ed John...and yes somebody bought a copy in 2011

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  2. Look at the Eldar Codex, no way they sold so few 2007-2010... I also find the Tau codex numbers 2007-2010 difficult to believe.

    I don't expect it to have sold much, but rapid drop offs in sales of that magnitude simply don't happen in reality.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eldar Codex replaced by 2006 Eldar Codex (2 lines above)

      Delete