Top Selling RPGs of 2022

At the start of each year we have a look back on our best selling games to see what trends are emerging, what's on the rise and what's fading in popularity. In this blog post we'll look at our best selling roleplaying games of the year.

Disclaimer

Leisure Games is an unusual games shop in that we strive to carry as wide a range as possible, particularly in the case of roleplaying games by independent publishers. We also have a long established mail order business that stretches across Europe. As such, a top selling game for us may not be the top selling game for another shop - let alone a best seller overall. These are just the games that excite our customers.

Best selling new games of 2022

Note that we included here some games which came out in 2021 but that we either didn't receive stock of until 2022 or didn't until late in the 2021, so the bulk of the sales were in 2022.

10. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Enemy Within – Vol 4: The Horned Rat Companion

9. Weird Frontiers RPG

7=. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Enemy Within – Vol. 4: The Horned Rat

7=. Into the Wyrd and Wild

6. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Altdorf: Crown of the Empire

5. The One Ring Second edition Core Rules

4. Delta Green: Impossible Landscapes

2=. Wanderhome

2=. Dungeons & Dragons Rules Expansion Gift Set

1. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: Spelljammer Adventures in Space

 

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay had a fairly successful year overall, with both volume 4 and 5 of the Enemy Within campaign coming out (the volume 5 books came out much later in the year so a lot of sales will run into 2023).

Weird Frontiers finally arrived late 2022 and instantly sold out; if we'd been able to get hold of more copies it would probably be higher on this list (we're expecting a restock soon).

The One Ring's second edition proved popular with strong sales of both this book and the new Starter Set.

Impossible Landscapes is a critically acclaimed campaign book for Delta Green. It actually came out late in 2021 but most of our sales were in 2022.

Wanderhome is another game that we could probably have sold considerably more off had we been able to get hold of more stock.

Finally, Dungeons & Dragons had several new releases in 2022, including Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, Journey through the Radiant Citadel and the Dragons of Stormwreck Isle Starter Set but these are the only two releases to make our top ten.

 

Games that left our top ten this year

These games were all in our top ten list in 2021 but have fallen off the top spots in 2022:

The Dungeons & Dragons books Candlekeep Mysteries, Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, all of which were released in 2021, went from being in 4th, 6th and 8th place respectively on our top ten to out of the top 100 altogether. This represents a trend we've seen for a while where the non-core D&D books tend to sell well when they first come out (bolstered by the retail exclusive alt-art covers) only for sales to slow down to a trickle.

 

Cyberpunk Red went from being in 7th place in 2021 to 38th place. It's still a strong seller for us, but it's popularity has faded somewhat following the release of the Cyberpunk 2077 video game at the end of 2020.

 

The OSR MÖRK BORG went from 9th place to 46th place, but MÖRK BORG supplements and compatible zines continue to sell well.

The Greek-mythology sim Agon went from 10th place to 31st, representing the smallest fall in sales in a game that has left our top ten. 

The 2022 Top Ten

Tying for 9th place are Thirsty Sword Lesbians and Dialect. Thirsty Sword Lesbians, a queer-focused "Powered by the Apocalypse" game about flirting and sword fights, originally came out in 2021 following a successful Kickstarter campaign. We actually sold more copies in 2022 than 2021 (it was our 18th best seller in 2021), suggesting that it has grown by reputation. It's follow up supplement, Advanced Lovers & Lesbians, only just missed our top ten list of new items to be released in 2022.

Dialect is a card-based storytelling game about how language evolves. It originally came out in 2018 and has been a strong seller for us consistently. It was placed 45th in 2021.

In 8th place is The Quiet Year, another card-based storytelling game about a community and the challenges it faces - this time told via a map the players draw together. It is even older, originally having been released in 2013, and was in 20th place in 2021.

In 7th place is Alice is Missing. This is a game where you play a group of teenagers from a small town investigating what has happened to a friend - notably it is played entirely by text message. This game came out at the end of 2020 but wasn't even in our top 100 in 2021, although that may have been largely due to supply issues.

In 6th place comes Spire, another game that has been around for quite a while but found its audience in 2022 (it was 78th in 2021). This is a game about a group of revolutionary dark elves fighting against their evil high elf overlords in a towering fantasy city.

In 5th place comes Spelljammer, which is in fact the only new release in 2022, and the only D&D item, to make our top ten. 

In 4th place comes Ryuutama, another game which has been around for a while, but one which has been a consistent top seller of ours for some time. Nonetheless, it climbs from 5th place in 2021 (having dropped out of our top ten in 2020). A translation of a Japanese RPG about a group of ordinary people going on a journey in a magical world, with a focus more on journeying than combat and treasure.

Our top 3 games remain unchanged from 2021:

 

Dungeon World is a Powered by the Apocalypse take on old-school dungeon crawling. 2023 marks its 10th anniversary since it has been in print and while sales have fluctuated, they remain strong.

 

 

Blades in the Dark is a game where the players are a group of thieves and scoundrels trying to make a living in a haunted, oppressive city. It's Forged in the Dark system has gone on to be adopted by dozens of other games, many of which are also top sellers. It has been in our top two best selling games since it was first published in 2017 and shows no sign of slowing down.

 

Finally, our best selling game of 2022 is Thousand Year Old Vampire. A solitaire journaling game, you play the role of a vampire and span their life over hundreds of years. At various points you are required to forget events from your past as you lose touch with your humanity and past loves. Like Blades in the Dark it is a game that we struggle to keep in stock as it consistently sells out (we should be getting a restock early this year if you are interested).

Trends and Conclusions

This has definitely been the year of the indie game, with Dungeons and Dragons having almost entirely vanished from our top ten list. Other popular games, particularly Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Traveller and Delta Green, are strong and consistent sellers for us but have failed to reach our top ten (although if you combined the sales of all of their products overall, those 3 would fare much more strongly).

In particular, the games that have done particularly well this year have a focus on presentation and design values, and all stand out as unique items in a crowded field of variations of dungeon crawls, cyberpunk and Lovecraftian horror.

2022 has been a particularly challenging year in terms of getting stock in a timely manner, so the fact that smaller press games have done so strongly this year has been particularly impressive.

Dungeons & Dragons continues to sell well overall, but it is notable how poorly the non-core books tend to perform after they first come out. Perhaps a greater focus on quality, support and fostering community goodwill rather than sheer quantity of content would be more effective for them (advice that would equally apply to Wizards of the Coast's other game Magic: the Gathering).

Overall though, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have well over 2,000 roleplaying items on our system that have sold at least one copy this year. In particular in 2022, we've really expanded our range of small press zines, from journaling games to quirky modules for other games, and this trend looks set to continue. The diversity of roleplaying games is very healthy at the moment and shows every sign of continuing into 2023.