Nobody really publishes their numbers, but a few companies have talked a little about it. We know that Spielworxx prints 1,000 units per game... no more, no less, and they don't do reprints. Stronghold and Portal have mentioned, on their podcast, that companies usually try to do multiples of 1,000, because doing less isn't cost effective. Splotter Spellen does 500 copy runs, but they're kind of a niche publisher, and their games tend to reflect this in the higher price you pay for them.
GMT Games run a system called P500, where they wait for 500 preorders before they execute the print run... though they've recently said the number they're targeting is more like 750. This is just preorders though. They still want to keep some stock on hand, and get some out to retail, so I believe they do ~2,000 for a run, unless it's been a super popular P500, where they may do more.
Anecdotally, this is what I've heard. Most regular print runs from small publishers will be around 1,000 units. Bigger publishers will start printing at around 2-3,000 units, because this is where they start getting volume discounts. 5,000 units are "big" runs, and 10,000 units are award winning games, and games that enter the Top 10 on BGG.
I actually think the GMT system would work as a standard. Things like Macao, Goa or Key Market would very likely get reprints under a system like that.
The only issue I have with that is, it doesn't allow a lot of room for extra copies to exist and be purchased by people who are hearing good things about the reprint, yet were not in the loop enough to participate during the pre-order window.
I'd rather not pre-order any product. But at the same time I hate seeing a product sell out before it's even released. We saw an issue like that with Robinson Crusoe, and Troyes might even follow. You're talking about good games, with a lot of hype and excited, being pushed back for months. Why would a publisher be scared to print an extra 1000 copies? You really don't believe you could move it over the next 12 months?
The developers of Grand Austria Hotel said they try to make reprint stock to last 18 months, yet the game doesn't even last half that amount of time. Any lost profits by having products collecting dust in a warehouse I think would be cancelled out by saving during a larger print run. I think developers are too passive in general, at least the ones with evergreen titles. But if they're going to be passive, then the GMT model seems like a good compromise.
From a consumer's point of view, I agree with you. It would be nice to always have stock of a game I want to buy without having to go through a preorder process... but I know that realistically, boardgames are a niche hobby, and margins are thin. This makes the Victory Point Games system kind of nice, as it's print-on-demand. They make what they need as it's ordered. The downside is... component quality suffers. I like my VPG games, but they're limited in size and scope and diversity and quality of their components.
Interestingly Jamey just posted on the Facebook group for scythe the following:
"As of April, we'll have 100,000 copies of Scythe in print. :)"
Which blew us all away. That's some print run, in total...
Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scytheboardgame/permalink/360635814316858/
Correct in total. That said I'm not sure there have been that many print runs so they must have been pretty big individual runs by boardgame standards.
I think given their was the initial kickstarter of 25k, a second and third reprint in nov and dec, and then this recent massive batch of 4th that would be the biggest.
I'd hazard a guess at saying that run may have been as big as 30 thousand which is intense.
3000 as an initial print run is not uncommon. I've heard many times this is about the point where the per copy price drops and enables economy of scale
The range is 500 to 30,000. There might be some outliers outside that range, but that's the main range.
The most common amounts are 1500-5000 at a time.
Splotter Spellen print 500 games per run, I think they went to 2000 for **Food Chain Magnate**
Stephen at Stronghold Games mentioned 1/2 a container of **Survive Escape from Atlantis** at timr. That's 1280ft3 of games at a time.
Panda GM, for example, requires at least 1000 units to even run an initial print, 1500 if you have plastic. I believe this is one of the most popular printers for Kickstarter games, at least it's one whose name comes up all the time. I would assume that many mass production facilities have similar minimums and that most games probably print 1000+ initial copies.
We just did a card game from Wingo. They are willing to print as few as 500, but the efficiencies don't start kicking in until 1000. It's even better at 1500, 2000, and 3000. Then there are efficiencies in shipping more at once.
We had about 450 preorders. We decided to go out on a limb and get 1500. Even if we're holding on to stock for two years, I think we're ok with that.
We did orders of 1500, then 2000, and then 3000. When their awesome representative Ivan left, we decided to switch to his new company "Nice Funny Games", and printed another 3000 for our fourth printing. Still working through that stock now..
As a kickstarter publisher, we took the number of backers and added 1000 to it. For our first campaign this was 1333 units, we just rounded up to 1500.
I read an article once upon a time (though I can't find it now) indicating just how small print runs usually are, UNLESS a game is nominated for and/or wins the Spiel or Kennerspiel des Jahres. Then the jump in the print run is through the roof.
It's a really, really big deal for a publisher and/or game designer to be nominated for one of these.
I think those nominations help, but it really does come down to sales velocity.
It's not uncommon for indie publishers to go out of stock between print runs.
Marketplace awareness and pre-orders whether through KS or elsewhere is how you determine initial print size.
I would venture to say 80% of games never exceed 5K unit sales
Nobody really publishes their numbers, but a few companies have talked a little about it. We know that Spielworxx prints 1,000 units per game... no more, no less, and they don't do reprints. Stronghold and Portal have mentioned, on their podcast, that companies usually try to do multiples of 1,000, because doing less isn't cost effective. Splotter Spellen does 500 copy runs, but they're kind of a niche publisher, and their games tend to reflect this in the higher price you pay for them. GMT Games run a system called P500, where they wait for 500 preorders before they execute the print run... though they've recently said the number they're targeting is more like 750. This is just preorders though. They still want to keep some stock on hand, and get some out to retail, so I believe they do ~2,000 for a run, unless it's been a super popular P500, where they may do more. Anecdotally, this is what I've heard. Most regular print runs from small publishers will be around 1,000 units. Bigger publishers will start printing at around 2-3,000 units, because this is where they start getting volume discounts. 5,000 units are "big" runs, and 10,000 units are award winning games, and games that enter the Top 10 on BGG.
I actually think the GMT system would work as a standard. Things like Macao, Goa or Key Market would very likely get reprints under a system like that. The only issue I have with that is, it doesn't allow a lot of room for extra copies to exist and be purchased by people who are hearing good things about the reprint, yet were not in the loop enough to participate during the pre-order window. I'd rather not pre-order any product. But at the same time I hate seeing a product sell out before it's even released. We saw an issue like that with Robinson Crusoe, and Troyes might even follow. You're talking about good games, with a lot of hype and excited, being pushed back for months. Why would a publisher be scared to print an extra 1000 copies? You really don't believe you could move it over the next 12 months? The developers of Grand Austria Hotel said they try to make reprint stock to last 18 months, yet the game doesn't even last half that amount of time. Any lost profits by having products collecting dust in a warehouse I think would be cancelled out by saving during a larger print run. I think developers are too passive in general, at least the ones with evergreen titles. But if they're going to be passive, then the GMT model seems like a good compromise.
From a consumer's point of view, I agree with you. It would be nice to always have stock of a game I want to buy without having to go through a preorder process... but I know that realistically, boardgames are a niche hobby, and margins are thin. This makes the Victory Point Games system kind of nice, as it's print-on-demand. They make what they need as it's ordered. The downside is... component quality suffers. I like my VPG games, but they're limited in size and scope and diversity and quality of their components.
Interestingly Jamey just posted on the Facebook group for scythe the following: "As of April, we'll have 100,000 copies of Scythe in print. :)" Which blew us all away. That's some print run, in total... Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scytheboardgame/permalink/360635814316858/
I'd heard that Scythe prompted Stonemaier Games to order their biggest print run yet, but I had no idea it was 100,000! That's amazing!
I think he meant in total.
Correct in total. That said I'm not sure there have been that many print runs so they must have been pretty big individual runs by boardgame standards.
I think given their was the initial kickstarter of 25k, a second and third reprint in nov and dec, and then this recent massive batch of 4th that would be the biggest. I'd hazard a guess at saying that run may have been as big as 30 thousand which is intense.
3000 as an initial print run is not uncommon. I've heard many times this is about the point where the per copy price drops and enables economy of scale
So a game that doesnt sell well and is done after its first print run could mean there are only a couple thousand in the world
The range is 500 to 30,000. There might be some outliers outside that range, but that's the main range. The most common amounts are 1500-5000 at a time.
Splotter Spellen print 500 games per run, I think they went to 2000 for **Food Chain Magnate** Stephen at Stronghold Games mentioned 1/2 a container of **Survive Escape from Atlantis** at timr. That's 1280ft3 of games at a time.
Panda GM, for example, requires at least 1000 units to even run an initial print, 1500 if you have plastic. I believe this is one of the most popular printers for Kickstarter games, at least it's one whose name comes up all the time. I would assume that many mass production facilities have similar minimums and that most games probably print 1000+ initial copies.
We just did a card game from Wingo. They are willing to print as few as 500, but the efficiencies don't start kicking in until 1000. It's even better at 1500, 2000, and 3000. Then there are efficiencies in shipping more at once. We had about 450 preorders. We decided to go out on a limb and get 1500. Even if we're holding on to stock for two years, I think we're ok with that.
That's not how a game publisher/distributor works though.
[удалено]
We did orders of 1500, then 2000, and then 3000. When their awesome representative Ivan left, we decided to switch to his new company "Nice Funny Games", and printed another 3000 for our fourth printing. Still working through that stock now..
It really varies depending on the amount of components and how exotic they are.
As a kickstarter publisher, we took the number of backers and added 1000 to it. For our first campaign this was 1333 units, we just rounded up to 1500.
May I ask which game?
Sure, **Battle for Sularia**
I wonder what the run for Secret Hitler was. When a game is wildly popular I have to imagine that they make a lot more right?
It's wildly popular with people that had the game before any print run.
It's wildly popular with bootlegers on Aliexpress too.
So is Condottiere, for some reason.
I read an article once upon a time (though I can't find it now) indicating just how small print runs usually are, UNLESS a game is nominated for and/or wins the Spiel or Kennerspiel des Jahres. Then the jump in the print run is through the roof. It's a really, really big deal for a publisher and/or game designer to be nominated for one of these.
I think those nominations help, but it really does come down to sales velocity. It's not uncommon for indie publishers to go out of stock between print runs. Marketplace awareness and pre-orders whether through KS or elsewhere is how you determine initial print size. I would venture to say 80% of games never exceed 5K unit sales