The D&D Stranger Things boom is bigger than you think

This post will not contain spoilers for Season 5 because I haven’t yet watched Season 5 of Stranger Things, though I do know it features more Dungeons & Dragons than Seaons 2-4 combined.

If you were to go into Target this fall you’d see a massive Stranger Things display somewhere in the store. Part of that display would feature the D&D boxed set Welcome to the Hellfire Club, which is a continuation of Eddie’s D&D campaign. It felt late, because Eddie isn’t part of season 5.

It was not late.

Welcome to the Hellfire Club sold out at Target. It sold out on Amazon. A light informal survey of local-to-me stores have it as sold out. The physical boxed set can still be ordered on DnDBeyond.

Sure, that could be a lack of ambition from Wizards of the Coast by not manufacturing enough of the sets.

It’s much more likely that the heavy lean back into D&D by Stranger Things Season 5 drove more desire for D&D the game than previous seasons, Critical Role and Baldur’s Gate 3. BG3’s drive of interest into D&D is hard to quantify, but has an extended window over several years.

Google Trends can show you.

Here are the four adjacent media and D&D

D&D, the game, had its biggest boom from the movie, but…

There’s one major difference — lack of tie-in gaming products.

Rime of the Frostmaiden contained a single adventure related to the movie. There was a boutique NPC download related to the movie, but nothing like the amazing boxed set Stranger Things got. Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus was barely related to the video game and its release timing was horrible.

Nothing sold out because of Honor Among Thieves, the best D&D marketing in the history of the game, because D&D wasn’t run as a franchise system with business units failing to talk to each other.

Both the current starter set and Welcome to the Hellfire Club are selling out.

What’s that mean for us Dungeon Masters?

1. Be welcoming to new and returning players.
2. Reduce house rules when they join you.
3. Talk about the intent of your table and what type of play you focus on .
4. Be familiar with the most popular products.
5. Help teach your current players to DM.
6. See if local cafes, libraries, schools, pubs, etc need DMs.

We are responsible for growing this glorious hobby. Thanks to the Creative Commons, various SRDs, the eternal nature of homebrewing and the thousands of other roleplaying games there is always something that’s right for someone.

Find what’s right for your family, your friends and your community.

People are interested. It’s up to you to be the reason they stay interested.