I didn't deny PnPs success. Its also in an upswing. PnP has also adapted as it has progressed. Big Bang Theory was a huge hit, Will Wheaton's Tabletop series on Youtube was a hit. People in general are not as uncomfortable being "nerdy".
However, here's some data.
Pathfinder: 200-300k copies sold. This is a bit hard to narrow down, as I cant find direct info on Pathfinder itself, because it gets grouped with Outwards sales with a combined total of 1.2million sold, and checking out outwards individual sales they had 1 million copies sold. seems like they are trying to inflate Pathfinders success by giving total sales.(D&D)
DOS2 has 2-3m sold. Larian is a fairly new company on the RPG stage. D&D has been around since 197X, and has had multiple video games.
Skyrim has sold 20-60m copies. IDK why there seems to be a huge discrepancy in the numbers reporting here. Even the 20m wipes the floor with any D&D video game.
Baldurs Gate 2, 2m Copies sold. BG 1 2m, BG DA 1.2m.(D&D)
Dragon Age 3.2m copies sold. Inquisition 6m.
Daggerdale 100k copies sold (D&D).
Oblivion 3m Copies sold.
Neverwinter Nights 2.2m(D&D)
Icewind Dale 1&2 combined Sales 580k(D&D)
The Witcher Series 1,2 &3 sold 50m total, last one #3 sold 12m alone.
I wont even get into MMO's for comparison except for a quick glance, but Everquest 2, DDO and WoW were all the same timeframe for release. DDO is at the bottom of the list for that group though. I've tried to keep the list to ones that I can at least find the same number in 2 different places.
Lets keep in mind that Bioware made BG 1 & 2, and then also made Dragon Age. Dragon Age didn't use D&D rule set and was more successful.
The data speaks for itself, obviously there seems to be something holding back the D&D ruleset from being a hit. BG and NWN were awesome games. I still think NWN is by far the best RPG I've played.
They are saying BG3 has already sold 1m in EA, and I cant find any data on Solasta except an estimate of about 200k. I don't know if id agree with that since bg3 has 32k reviews and Solasta has 2k. Reviews should be closer if Solasta holds 20% of what BG3 has.
The question here is how much of this is nostalgia for a 20yr sequel, how much of it is riding on the coattails of Larian and/or Divinity, how much of it is for the D&D rule set. That's where I'm concerned we might squander the chance to see a D&D rule set become more successful/mainstream, if we are willing to the industry standard for cooldowns instead.
