Tricube Tales sales figures for 2023

Last year I provided a breakdown of the Tricube Tales sales figures for 2022, so I thought it was about time I did the same for 2023.

Total Sales per Month

Here are the total sales for the entire product line since last year (I've included December from last year as well, as it wasn't complete in my previous blog post).

• Dec 2022: 629
• Jan 2023: 1010
• Feb 2023: 1263
• Mar 2023: 1088
• Apr 2023: 1719 (includes Deal of the Day)
• May 2023: 1268
• Jun 2023: 680
• Jul 2023: 869
• Aug 2023: 611
• Sep 2023: 677
• Oct 2023: 1031
• Nov 2023: 787
• Dec 2023: 986 (with another 5 days to go)

Breakdown by Product

Here is a breakdown of the total sales figures for the main products:

• Tricube Tales (core rules): 2128 sales since 2019-11-08
• Solo Rules & Deck: 1323 sales since 2021-05-14

These are the "payment optional" products on DTRPG (in order of publication) -- people can download them for free, but I'm only tracking actual sales where people paid for them:

• Goblin Gangsters: 757 sales since 2020-08-27
• Samhain Slaughter: 787 sales since 2020-10-08
• Chrome Shells & Neon Streets: 915 sales since 2020-11-21
• Metahuman Uprising: 829 sales since 2020-12-28
• Rotten Odds: 762 sales since 2021-01-31
• Tales of the Goblin Horde: 763 sales since 2021-04-01
• Wardens of the Weird West: 816 sales since 2021-06-12
• Firefighters: 744 sales since 2021-07-06
• Horrible Henchmen: 731 sales since 2021-08-13
• Pirates of the Bone Blade: 778 sales since 2021-09-15
• Eldritch Detectives: 859 sales since 2021-10-30
• Wiseguys: Gangster Tales: 698 sales since 2021-11-20
• Interstellar Mech War: 774 sales since 2021-11-30
• Voyage to the Isle of Skulls: 667 sales since 2021-12-31
• Down in the Depths: 598 sales since 2022-01-24
• Accursed: Dark Tales of Morden: 542 sales since 2022-02-17
• Twisted Wishes: 588 sales since 2022-02-23
• A Welsh Werewolf in Llanfair PG: 625 sales since 2022-04-01
• Interstellar Smugglers: 688 sales since 2022-05-04
• Winter Eternal: Darkness and Ice: 503 sales since 2022-05-17
• Sharp Knives & Dark Streets: 601 sales since 2022-05-31
• Summer Camp Slayers: 546 sales since 2022-06-28
• Titan Effect RPG: Covert Tales: 516 sales since 2022-07-20
• Sundered Chains: 473 sales since 2022-08-07
• Stranger Tales: 494 sales since 2022-10-06
• Minerunners: 451 sales since 2022-11-01
• Spellrunners: 483 sales since 2022-11-22
• Christmas Capers: 412 sales since 2022-12-18
• Heroes of Sherwood Forest: 398 sales since 2023-01-28
• Tales of the Little Adventurers: 344 sales since 2023-02-19
• Tales of the City Guard: 328 sales since 2023-03-26
• Maidenstead Mysteries: 313 sales since 2023-04-19
• Interstellar Rebels: 315 sales since 2023-05-04
• Hunters of Victorian London: 269 sales since 2023-05-29
• Stone Age Hunters: 225 sales since 2023-06-23
• Paths Between the Stars: 225 sales since 2023-07-01
• Mythical Heroes: 169 sales since 2023-09-15
• Academy of Monstrous Secrets: 105 sales since 2023-10-29
• Eldritch Apocalypse: 75 sales since 2023-12-07

These are the DTRPG freebies (in order of publication) -- I like to have a few free products to build up my mailing list. However, since I've added a print-on-demand option, they now have a few sales as well:

• Interstellar Bounty Hunters: 3684 downloads (and 19 print sales) since 2020-09-29
• Welcome to Drakonheim: 2372 downloads (and 11 print sales) since 2021-03-10
• Interstellar Troopers: 3018 downloads (and 17 print sales) since 2021-04-26
• Interstellar Laser Knights: 2830 downloads (and 14 print sales) since 2021-05-04

I also have a few freebies on Itch, which I entered into Jams. Here they are, once again listed in order of publication:

• The Fools Who Follow: 989 downloads since 2020-07-29
• Deep Trouble in Oldport Bay: 625 downloads since 2021-02-20
• Halfling Hustlers: 306 downloads since 2021-07-03
• Guardians of the Shadow Frontier: 735 downloads since 2021-07-31
• Interstellar Explorers: 519 downloads since 2022-08-02
• Arcane Agents: 156 downloads since 2023-08-15

Some Thoughts

In the past, when I published new products they initially sold well, but those sales rapidly dwindled to a mere trickle. However, the one-pagers seem to continue to sell well long after publication. I suspect this is because I add each new release to the Tricube Tales Bundle, and many new customers will buy the entire bundle (at half price) rather than pick up an individual product.

Last year, the best-selling one-pager (Chrome Shells & Neon Streets) hit Gold Best Seller with 561 sales, and 18 others reached Electrum Best Seller. This year, 23 of the one-pagers have hit Gold Best Seller, and Chrome Shells & Neon Streets is rapidly closing on Platinum. The main Tricube Tales book is also marching steadily toward Mithral Best Seller -- it had 1063 sales last year, and a further 1065 sales this year, so if it continues to sell at the current rate it should hit Mithral in about 5 months.

This year I also started offering print-on-demand versions of the one-pagers, although they don't sell particularly well compared to the digital versions -- I've sold 434 in total so far, which might seem a lot, but probably doesn't even cover the cost of printing and shipping the print proofs. Still, they look great (printed on 10"x8" double-sided cards), particularly in video reviews, and sales figures jump whenever someone posts a video review.

I've also reached the point where my Tricube Tales products significantly outsell my SWAG products, which is something of a personal milestone. However, I am still a fan of Savage Worlds, and plan to continue releasing SWAG products from time to time -- I've already converted two of the Tricube Tales one-pagers to SWADE, and have plans for at least a couple more.

What's Next?

Last year I mentioned that I was working on Tricube Tactics, which is an optional supplement that adds deeper combat and character progression to Tricube Tales. I'd originally hoped to release it this year, but it's taken a lot more fine-tuning and playtesting than I thought. However, I've already started doing the layout, and there's really just one section I still need to finish writing (the monster section), so I'm very optimistic about finishing it next year. I'm hoping Tricube Tactics will give the system greater appeal to those who felt Tricube Tales was too light for their tastes.

Once Tricube Tactics is finished, I'm also quite keen to use it for a Saga of the Goblin Horde conversion -- perhaps even publish a standalone "Saga of the Goblin Horde" game that includes the Tricube Tales and Tricube Tactics rules.

Of course, I also plan to continue releasing new one-pagers, as this approach seems to be highly effective at keeping the system in the public eye (and it's fun to explore all sorts of different settings and genres!). But I think it would be nice to publish a larger TT product as well, and SotGH is an obvious candidate. Still, I may also experiment with some other larger products -- I've seen a few third-party publishers create TT booklets, and I've got an interesting idea for a fantasy game in the same style.

Finally, I'm planning to start posting on this blog more regularly. I used to post on it a lot the first few years, but this year I've posted a grand total of once (i.e., this post!). There are quite a few topics I'd like to post about for Tricube Tactics, as it allows me to explore game mechanics in a way that wasn't really possible with the core rules-lite Tricube Tales.