I've previously posted the sales figures for 2019/2020/2021, 2022, and 2023, and a few other indie designers have expressed an interest, so I thought I'd keep the trend going by sharing the figures from 2024 -- particularly now that Tricube Tales has hit Mithral Best Seller. I think it's interesting to see how the system has grown over the years!
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 2023: 1283
- Jan 2024: 864
- Feb 2024: 732
- Mar 2024: 752
- Apr 2024: 1026
- May 2024: 1031
- Jun 2024: 522
- Jul 2024: 706
- Aug 2024: 810
- Sep 2024: 800
- Oct 2024: 731
- Nov 2024: 1827 (boosted by the release of Tricube Tactics)
- Dec 2024: 5132 (massively boosted by the Dungeon Dive's video)
Breakdown by Product
Here is a breakdown of the total sales figures for the main products:
- Tricube Tales: 2759 sales (inc. 588 print copies) since 2019-11-08
- Solo Rules & Deck: 1757 sales (249 printed decks) since 2021-05-14
- Tricube Tactics: 351 sales (93 print copies) since 2024-11-08
And here are their associated print-only products:
- Tricube Tales Micro Edition: 45 print sales since 2023-05-20
- Tricube Tales Solo Rules: 78 print sales since 2023-03-07
- Tricube Tactics Rules Primer: 4 print sales since 2024-12-12
These are the "payment optional" one-pagers 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: 1049 sales since 2020-08-27
- Samhain Slaughter: 1079 sales since 2020-10-08
- Chrome Shells & Neon Streets: 1221 sales since 2020-11-21
- Metahuman Uprising: 1125 sales since 2020-12-28
- Rotten Odds: 1059 sales since 2021-01-31
- Tales of the Goblin Horde: 1062 sales since 2021-04-01
- Wardens of the Weird West: 1116 sales since 2021-06-12
- Firefighters: 1037 sales since 2021-07-06
- Horrible Henchmen: 1027 sales since 2021-08-13
- Pirates of the Bone Blade: 1083 sales since 2021-09-15
- Eldritch Detectives: 1162 sales since 2021-10-30
- Wiseguys: Gangster Tales: 987 sales since 2021-11-20
- Interstellar Mech War: 1084 sales since 2021-11-30
- Voyage to the Isle of Skulls: 976 sales since 2021-12-31
- Down in the Depths: 889 sales since 2022-01-24
- Accursed: Dark Tales of Morden: 697 sales since 2022-02-17
- Twisted Wishes: 883 sales since 2022-02-23
- A Welsh Werewolf in Llanfair PG: 929 sales since 2022-04-01
- Interstellar Smugglers: 1010 sales since 2022-05-04
- Winter Eternal: Darkness and Ice: 794 sales since 2022-05-17
- Sharp Knives & Dark Streets: 918 sales since 2022-05-31
- Summer Camp Slayers: 851 sales since 2022-06-28
- Titan Effect RPG: Covert Tales: 831 sales since 2022-07-20
- Sundered Chains: 771 sales since 2022-08-07
- Stranger Tales: 806 sales since 2022-10-06
- Minerunners: 752 sales since 2022-11-01
- Spellrunners: 798 sales since 2022-11-22
- Christmas Capers: 723 sales since 2022-12-18
- Heroes of Sherwood Forest: 709 sales since 2023-01-28
- Tales of the Little Adventurers: 650 sales since 2023-02-19
- Tales of the City Guard: 647 sales since 2023-03-26
- Maidenstead Mysteries: 620 sales since 2023-04-19
- Interstellar Rebels: 643 sales since 2023-05-04
- Hunters of Victorian London: 588 sales since 2023-05-29
- Stone Age Hunters: 547 sales since 2023-06-23
- Paths Between the Stars: 553 sales since 2023-07-01
- Mythical Heroes: 504 sales since 2023-09-15
- Academy of Monstrous Secrets: 452 sales since 2023-10-29
- Eldritch Apocalypse: 439 sales since 2023-12-07
- Champions of Osiris: 376 sales since 2024-01-27
- Conniving Cat Burglars: 424 sales since 2024-04-01
- Tales of the Sewer Samurai: 304 sales since 2024
- Champions of Fenrir: 256 sales since 2024-07-01
- Ghost Banishers: 207 sales since 2024-10-10
These are the DTRPG freebies (in order of publication). A few free products help 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: 4522 downloads (28 print sales) since 2020-09-29
- Welcome to Drakonheim: 3021 downloads (19 print sales) since 2021-03-10
- Interstellar Troopers: 3871 downloads (26 print sales) since 2021-04-26
- Interstellar Laser Knights: 3618 downloads (24 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 -- and these now have some print-on-demand sales as well:
- The Fools Who Follow: 1154 downloads since 2020-07-29
- Deep Trouble in Oldport Bay: 750 downloads since 2021-02-20
- Halfling Hustlers: 375 downloads since 2021-07-03
- Guardians of the Shadow Frontier: 1010 downloads since 2021-07-31
- Interstellar Explorers: 695 downloads since 2022-08-02
- Arcane Agents: 309 downloads since 2023-08-15
- Troll Couriers of the Sky Isles: 356 downloads since 2024-08-01
Something I've also started experimenting with is printed versions of the character cards that come with some of the one-pagers:
- Minerunners (cards): 19 print sales since 2023-03-07
- Sharp Knives & Dark Streets (cards): 21 print sales since 2023-03-07
- Spellrunners (cards): 19 print sales since 2023-03-07
- Christmas Capers (cards): 3 print sales since 2024-12-12
- Eldritch Apocalypse (cards): 5 print sales since 2024-12-12
- Interstellar Rebels (cards): 4 print sales since 2024-12-12
Much like the printed one-pagers, the printed character cards are a niche product that barely sell enough to cover their production cost (particularly as I need to have them shipped from the US to the EU). But once again, I really like them, and I'm happy to create them even if only for my own use (e.g., when I run games for my son or a local gaming group).
Some Thoughts
As always, with each new release, the entire product line marches forward. The first one-pager hit Gold Best Seller (501+ sales) at the end of 2022, but by the end of 2023, there were 23 Gold Best Seller one-pagers. One year later, 13 of the one-pagers have now reached Platinum Best Seller (1001+ sales) while 24 are Gold Best Sellers. The main Tricube Tales book has also finally reached Mithral Best Seller (2501+ sales), which is something I never imagined would happen back when I first published it in 2019!
Last year I started offering print-on-demand versions of the one-pagers, although I observed they didn't sell particularly well, and that's still very much the case. I've sold 917 in total, but that's only around 15-30 of each -- some are more popular than others, but none of them are profitable. Still, they look really cool, so I plan to continue offering a print option!
I'm also glad I finally finished Tricube Tactics. It's done better than expected (as I recognized from the start it's a very niche product), but most importantly it's provided me the foundation I need to create a full "Tricube Tales & Tactics" version of Saga of the Goblin Horde! That's something I plan to start working on this year.
It was also last year that Geek Gamers posted a YouTube review of Tricube Tales, giving the sales a significant boost. At the beginning of this month, The Dungeon Dive posted a YouTube review, and as can be seen from this post, Tricube Tales sales went through the roof!
Such reviews can be extremely valuable for indie game designers, particularly those like me who have only a relatively small following of their own.
What's Next?
Now that Tricube Tactics is complete, my next big project will be using it to create a full standalone version of Saga of the Goblin Horde with Tricube Tales & Tactics baked in. Combining my most popular (Mithral Best Seller) game system with my ENnie Award-winning game setting feels like it should be a recipe for success.
But I also have other plans! I can't work on only one thing at once, it burns me out, so I always juggle a few different projects. One of these projects is Tricube Terrors, which is an expanded monster manual for Tricube Tactics (I didn't have enough room to fit in more than a dozen monsters at the back, and didn't want to turn half the book into a bestiary, so I thought it would be better to split them off into a separate book).
There's also Tricube Tricks, which will be filled with various optional rules I've discussed or played around with over the years, and Tricube Tutorial, which will contain advice for running the game, particularly for newer GMs (this is something I left out of Tricube Tales originally as it was aimed at readers with prior GMing experience, but I've since encountered several people who picked it up as their first RPG).
In terms of Tricube Tales one-pagers, I've been a bit lax the last few months due to the push for Tricube Tactics, but I have a couple that are very close to completion (one is in cooperation with another publisher, the other has a bonus sheet specifically designed to showcase Tricube Tactics). There are also a few that I plan to work on next year.
I've already released Champions of Osiris and Champions of Fenrir, these are "double feature" one-pagers (i.e., each contains two versions of the one-pager, one in the modern day and one in the past) and they are both urban fantasy scenarios (one covering mummies, the other werewolves). Next year I'd like to release Champions of Lilith (covering vampires) and Champions of Avalon (covering mages). These one-pagers all take place in the same "world" and are designed to be mixed and matched.
Another one-pager I'd like to release is something related to elves, set in the same (SotGH) world as Minerunners and Sharp Knives & Dark Streets. This will include character cards and a Six-Scene Scenario, as I'd like to adapt it into a SWADE micro-setting at a later date.
I've also been collecting ideas for a follow-up to Pirates of the Bone Blade, and this will also be a larger product, as I have sufficient artwork for character cards and an island map.
There are several other one-pager ideas I've had floating around for a while that I'd like to finally get down on paper -- one involves playing dragons, for example. Another is an expanded fantasy scenario with three Six-Scene Scenarios (one city-based, one wilderness-based, and one dungeon-based), as I don't really have a "vanilla" fantasy one-pager yet.
But sometimes it's best not to plan too far ahead. RPG design is still something I view as a hobby, I do it because I enjoy it, and many of the one-pagers are inspired spontaneously by something I'll read or watch on TV.
However, one thing I really will try to do next year is post more often on my blog. In fact, let's make it a New Year's Resolution to post at least once per month!
